Slack: Rise of the emoji

OnePoll conducted research for business communications platform, Slack — as part of a global study — in the U.S., U.K., France and Germany.

The study coincided with the one-year milestone of many people beginning to work from home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It delved into the ways in which communication had changed during the previous 12 months.

The U.S. research results revealed that eight in 10 U.S. workplaces had adopted new communication tools since March 2020, and as a whole, these were more informal.

Respondents said email made it more difficult to prioritize tasks and they felt less connected to their colleagues when communicating over email.

Less than half of those surveyed said they “always” use proper punctuation when messaging with colleagues (40%), yet 31% do always use emoji. And while Gen Z may have deemed it “uncool,” the “laugh cry” emoji (or face with tears of joy) was revealed to be the most popular emoji for respondents to use with their co-workers.

The survey revealed 55% had also felt increased feelings of solidarity and connection with their co-workers since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

Emoji weren’t the only thing bringing employees together: for those who said it had been easier to connect through remote work, it came down to the opportunity to learn more about each other. Respondents said it was easier to connect after meeting their co-workers’ partner or kids on a video call — or saying hello to their pet on-screen, while others said they learned about their co-workers’ interests through their video backgrounds.

These were voted the most popular remote work emoji:
Face with tears of joy 😂 42%
Red heart ❤️ 40%
Thumbs up 👍 34%
Rolling on the floor laughing 🤣 27%

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