During this age in which the text message seems to have far outstripped the phone call as the communication method of choice, emojis have become a language all their own. From smiley faces to side-eye smirks, the ubiquitous yellow faces are now also widely used on Facebook and have found their way into professional emails as well – but is the workplace really an appropriate setting for sending emojis back and forth?

When deciding whether or not to use an emoji in your workplace correspondence, a good rule of thumb that I generally follow is a simple one: know your audience. If you’re writing to a client who frequently uses emojis in his or her emails to you, then by all means feel free to include a lighthearted grinning face. If your email is meant for a stern, tight-laced supervisor, however, it might be a better idea to stick to prose to convey your message.

There are times when abstaining from emoji use may be the right call regardless of your audience, however. We often turn to emojis to help clarify intent by attaching emotion to our message – but in reality, the recipient of an email in the workplace is likely to misinterpret the message as more emotionally negative or neutral than intended. For example, when offering corrective feedback, a supervisor may include a smiley face to soften the blow, explaining that a mistake is “no big deal.” That smile is often all to easy for an employee to interpret as condescending or passive aggressive. To avoid these mishaps, try to think about the worst-case scenario interpretation when sending feedback – it’s often less complicated to avoid emoting inthe first place.

Take a look at more considerations on emojis in the workplace in this quick article from TLNT: http://www.eremedia.com/tlnt/to-emoji-or-not-to-emoji/