That thinking face. The eye-roll mug. The “nerd” emoji with the glasses. These cartoon images of the human face have become shorthand for complex emotions that we increasingly throw into digital communications for a host of reasons ranging from time saving to tension diffusion to literally lacking the words to describe how we feel. But are they appropriate for work-related exchanges?
Often not—and especially for women, who are likely to interpret negative, neutral and ambiguous emojis more negatively than men do, according to a recent study.