It turns out using emojis at work is ticking off the majority of British workers, with 62% saying they find them inappropriate.
This is on top of a study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science that says using a smiley face emoji in a work email may make people think you are less competent.
Women were more likely than men to think emojis were inappropriate at work (64% vs 56%) while people aged 35-44 were revealed to be most likely to use them in the office (46%). Those aged 55+ were most likely to think they were inappropriate.
The research, by TollFreeForwarding.com, asked over 1,000 UK workers about different office behaviour they think are absolute no-no’s at work. Despite the UK beer-fridge office culture, drinking alcohol at work came high on the list of unacceptable behaviours, with almost 9 in 10 (86% of) workers saying this is not appropriate in the workplace.
With millions of UK workers now hybrid or remote working, more Brits see running personal errands during work time as acceptable – over a third of all workers (36%) have no problems taking a cheeky break to work on their personal to-do list.
Other behaviours people took issue with were their colleagues shouting (87% said this was inappropriate), discussing their sex lives (83%). 4 in 5 Brits also felt like swearing wasn’t appropriate in the workplace (80%).
Jason O’Brien, COO of TollFreeForwarding.com, said of the findings:
“It’s interesting to see how your work communication, including the use of emojis and swearing, might actually be getting on your colleague’s nerves. Over a third also thought sarcasm wasn’t good in the workplace, which is often called a staple of British humour. We’d advise you to sense the tone with all your communication and work out what’s best to say.”
