Workplace Language Is Evolving—One Emoji at a Time

Asynchronous remote work has conditioned employees to communicate more informally and empathetically. Those "friendly reminders" though? Alive and well.
An illustration of evolving emojis.
Illustration: Elena Lacey; Getty Images; APPLE VIA UNICODE

When the pandemic first sent office workers home in 2020, Slack says there was a major spike in the use of the heart emoji on its site. Struggling amid the rising tide of infections and deaths, deepening isolation, and loss of freedom—and still trying to deliver on the day job—knowledge workers offered virtual support to their colleagues as best they could. Emojis did the job of smiles, head nods, and spontaneous coffee rounds in the office.

On video calls, many workers glimpsed into their team’s private spheres, chaotic bedrooms, rogue book collections, and family life for the first time. Not everyone loved the erasure of the line between private and professional, but one thing is for certain: The trials of the past three years have changed the way we communicate at work forever.

“Workplace language is more informal across the board but also for Generation-Xers and Boomers who use exclamations, emojis, and gifs to express their sentiments in a different way than before,” says Erica Dhawan, author of Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust & Connection No Matter the Distance. Workplace communication has since pivoted heavily toward more instant messages—according to Microsoft, the average Teams user sent 32 percent more chats each week in February 2022 compared to March 2020, a figure that continues to increase. A survey commissioned by Slack and conducted by OnePoll found that, since being hybrid or remote, 75 percent of American workers say showing their personality through informal work messages has helped them better connect with colleagues, and 73 percent believe that it’s helped them navigate the transition to remote and hybrid work.

This language evolution is here to stay thanks to hybrid working. In mid-October, journeys to offices in the world’s seven largest economies were still significantly below pre-pandemic levels in 2020, so a full return to hypermasculine, command-and-control business speak is unlikely. People are using fewer jargon and less formal language, which makes the workplace more navigable for women and employees who are part of minority groups.

Stripped down to back-and-forth shorthand messages, with the option of tweaking after pressing send, employees don’t need to worry as much about how their tone of voice, facial expression, and body language might be interpreted by colleagues and higher-ups. This is an interesting development for women. In the 1980s, Dr. Deborah Tannen, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, began writing about the double bind women come under at work: If they communicate in a way that’s associated with and expected of women, they’re perceived as lacking in confidence and even competence. If they communicate in ways expected of someone in authority, they’re seen as too assertive. It’s a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t conundrum that women of all generations are likely to recognise.

As online language, which is codified along feminine defaults, enters the mainstream in the workplace, this double bind could finally be eroding. When everyone uses increasingly human, less formal language, from entry to executive level, it becomes normalised and reduces possible judgement on why and when someone might communicate in this way. If bias were fully erased, no one could be deemed bad at their job for replying to a message with a quick “yup” or responding to a photo of someone’s puppy with a broken-heart emoji.

However, bad practice in online communication is a problem. The proliferation of “gentle reminders” and the use of the word “kind” on work email and workplace messaging apps has backfired because it is considered sarcastic, as has the use of the smiling emoji after a serious work message. Research conducted by e-learning platform Go1 in October found that 48 percent of American workers and 44 percent of British workers believe passive aggressive behaviours have soared since before the pandemic.

“Feeling stressed and lacking in communication or problem solving skills can all lead to passive aggressive behaviors, which reduce productivity and damages workplace culture,” says Ashleigh Loughnan, chief people officer at Go1.

“In person, people were able to hear the tone of voice or see the body language, but without it, verbatim demands and orders left workers feeling unappreciated, undervalued, and disrespected,” adds Dhawan. “One of the drivers of the Great Resignation was that we didn’t know how to provide recognition to colleagues through digital means.”

Dhawan believes that executives have been recasting how they communicate to fight against attrition and quiet quitting. If they weren’t on the curve already, many have adopted more informal language, peppering their messages with creative gifs, emojis, and emotive shorthand to show deeper appreciation for their staff’s contributions and connect on equal footing. “Now an email with three exclamation points and two emojis could easily come from a CEO,” she says. It goes both ways—46 percent of American workers are comfortable using emojis when communicating with their bosses.

Corporate jargon, which negatively impacts trust and increases irritation and misunderstandings, has taken a hit as instant messaging on platforms like Slack and Teams reduce the need for certain aspects of work admin discussion. Terms like “circle back,” “per my last note,” and “take this offline” are being swapped out for concise language, or emojis. It’s a subtle shift, but one most will rejoice. The majority of workers hate workplace jargon, with phrases like “give it 100 percent,” “think outside the box,” and “team player” ranking as the most overused, according to the Slack study.

Slipping into jargon still happens through force of habit and a desire to impress. Research by academics at Columbia Business School in November found that individuals with low status are more likely to use jargon, acronyms, and legalese at higher rates than high-status individuals because they’re more insecure about how others will perceive them. With deeper reliance on virtual tools, people are getting better at vetting their own messages—78 percent of American workers have stopped themselves from talking or sending a message to avoid using corporate jargon. Some 83 percent have gone back and edited messages they’ve already sent to avoid these phrases.

As companies hone their own communication styles and words to fit their needs, specific dialects are emerging. Employees of different nationalities and linguistic dialects of their own are developing these even further. Over a third of French, Australian, and German Slack users agree that their company has its own “language” when it comes to emojis, while over half of users in India and China have observed the same phenomenon. In the real world, corporate Memphis–style design is sticking around, but internal communication is becoming more exciting and diverse.

“In this digital-first world, the tools we use are the main way we experience our companies and create bonds with colleagues,” says Olivia Grace, senior director of product at Slack. “Across our customer base, from small dental practices to FTSE 100 giants, teams are creating and adding their own custom emojis to Slack.” Individuals can use them to be more expressive and they can help asynchronous teams communicate effectively too. The software platform Guru built branded custom emojis to mark which messages need immediate responses and which can be left unanswered for several days.

Some companies have implemented education and training around remote work and asynchronous communication in particular, which will help reduce passive aggression and become crucial as the workforce shifts geographically. Data platform provider Mezmo, which has been remote-first since 2020, brought in a third-party expert in remote work to train managers, and has hired a manager of remote experience to ensure decisions are made in the best interest of its remote workforce. Digital studio TheSoul Publishing, which has a policy of no meetings and no internal emails, recently instigated a re-onboarding program when its remote workers hit their one-year work anniversary. Aimed at helping employees understand how the company has evolved, it’s also designed to upskill workers on better asynchronous communication.

When Dhawan works to advise corporate clients with their communication strategy, she notes that digital passive aggression emerges if there’s a clash between people’s preferences and a more universal internet behaviour. “Some people didn’t want to pick up the phone, used chats instead of having a synchronous call, or instigated back-and-forth brainstorming that wasn’t effective,” she says. “It’s still possible to use all the right tools in the wrong ways, so there’s no one-size-fits-all approach in the digital workplace.”


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This article was originally published by WIRED UK