Only :) or :( are considered acceptable. And only in an informal context with work colleagues, never with anyone more than 1 step removed from you (meaning it might be ok with your supervisor if that’s the kind of relationship you have, but never with your boss’ boss). I don’t make the social rules, don’t @ me.

Probably only your office could answer that and we don’t know them.

Never on external emails though.

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Was the email subject of my last resignation.

[Non-serious answer]

No, only stupid reaction GIFs are allowed at my company. If an emotion doesn’t involve sending multiple megabytes of data to every member in the conversation, it’s not worth expressing.

Note: Standards are higher for secretarial and HR staff. At least 20% of the gifs must have Minions in them.

This is a question of, what agency do you have over your communications and what kind of communication would express a character trait of yours that you would like to be attributed to you.

If you have high agency, and using emojis expresses genuineness or what you would prefer to be expressed, go for it.

I swear in meetings, drink at lunches, and generally wear my feelings on my sleeve. This works for me because I have useful feedback on projects, clearly define choices effected by policy and what have you. I say those unsaid things, and either it’s novel contribution or it’s falling on the sword of the things people don’t want to say. This is fine for consultation. It does piss off colleagues when I just do what I want, to effect some result or uncover some relevant fact that I assume is required.

If you have low agency, and/or you feel that informal communications would be detrimental, find a communication strategy that lets you express some individuality, novelty in some other way.

I am not above the occasional :) with most of my coworkers, however anything more exotic than that would require a comfort level that I have with… none of them, really.

I’ve no idea what those emojis represent…

That said, if you wish to be understood, then you might consider expressing yourself with language that’s clearly understood.

Emojis in professional emails are very uncommon. Consider explaining how you feel with words instead. If chatting, then consider image emojis or only the most commonly understood simple text emojis. Uncommon or more recently developed emojis are more likely to be misunderstood and/or considered immature.

Emoji = picture Emoticon= text

In my experience the only ones that don’t look weird in a work email are:

:) :( ;)

Anything else is going to be seen as weird and superfluous. ^u :3 would be a hard no for myself, and I know it would get me weird attention that I wouldn’t want.

This very much depends on your industry, workplace, and coworkers.

I don’t know! I can’t keep track of what you humans think of as socially acceptable! Back in the 1920s, you gave your coworker a smooch on his lips, a slap on the ass, and didn’t tell either of your wives! Now though? The wives are at work! There’s no more secret monday meeting for company jerkoff sessions! Just sittin in a circle, jerkin off your buddies while they jerk you off! The roaring 20s we called them, because even after you cum, the jerking never stopped, so you roared and roared!

You have no idea how hard it is being the immortal highlander, when you drastically change society every 30 years. That’s like 5 minutes for me. Just found out disco is no longer a thing!

THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!!..in every corporate office.

¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

First focus on expressing yourself in words as clearly as possible. If you’re writing to someone very familiar, an occasional emoji is ok. Using them too much to show how you’re feeling makes it appear as though your feelings are more important than the content

always follow your boss’s example.

generally speaking, I’d leave the emojis out. for one thing, there’s people who don’t know what they mean, or they maybe will just read into it wrong because they hate you. I remember sending an email to a coworker when I came back from a vacation and the general gist of it was “thanks for helping [this annoying client],” literally just a quick email to thank them and let them know that I was back. Yeah. with the way they went screaming to the boss, you’d have thought I told them to go fuck themselves with a rusty holedigger.

it’s bad enough when everything is in plain language. putting it in emoticons…? yeah. you’re asking for trouble.

It depends.

Probably will have a lot depending on the country and how well you know the person at the other end.

I’d be happy to (and do use) some text emoji with people I know well.

On Email? Never. Through messaging like microsoft teams with a coworker you already know? Sure. With your boss? Maybe not, but that depends on your boss. It’s pretty normal for work messages to be more bland, though.