Real talk: You’ve received a text before that’s just emojis, whether it’s from a kid or a parent or a potential romantic interest, and thought to yourself, “What is this person trying to tell me??”
🏄🐢🌀🐠 | Source: Disney/Pixar’s Finding Nemo via tenor.com
Emojis are tough to interpret, ya’ll! But we Broadcats use them anyway, so you’re probably thinking, “Why would they be giving us emoji advice?! They use emojis for everything!”
Exactly! Think of it like you would a pro fireworks technician: We’ve been wielding emojis in our professional lives so much that there’s little-to-no chance of them backfiring and exploding in our faces. 💥 We know the drill.
So, if you’re in compliance and looking for some guidance on emojis, who better to turn to than us?
Because we are your unofficial authority on emojis in a professional setting, we’re thrilled to share with you our guide to the top emojis that could land you in hot water, and the lessons we can all learn from them.
Thumbs-Up 👍
Did you hear about that Canadian court case that ruled a contract was valid because of a thumbs-up emoji? A farmer agreed via thumbs-up emoji to deliver some crops to a buyer by a certain date. That deadline came and went, and the buyer never received what he interpreted as an agreed-upon delivery. As a result, the court ordered the farmer to pay the buyer Can$82,000 for violating the contract.
Lesson 1: Weigh the Importance
If your colleague asks whether you want to meet for lunch at noon, a thumbs-up reaction is just fine. If your colleague asks you to approve an expense report, skip the reaction emoji and make it clear that you will send it through the official channels. 🖖
Rocket Ship 🚀
Once upon a time, a sports collectibles company tweeted that it had an NFT for sale, and included in that tweet its cost, plus various rocket ship and upward chart emojis. According to this article, “the use of emojis was specifically called out as meaning there was an expectation of profit for the NFT issuance,” making it an investment by setting the expectation of a return. And because that company didn’t register with the SEC, the SEC decided to take matters into their own hands … with a lawsuit and an eventual securities violation.
Lesson 2: Consider the Context
An innocuous emoji like a rocket ship might mean “fun” or “enthusiasm” or “woohoo let’s do this!” in some other context. But if you’re selling anything, it could also be interpreted as an indicator that values are going up and profits will be made. Proceed with caution. And maybe don’t use up your precious character count with a bunch of other incriminating emojis. 🚲 > 🚀
Moon Face 🌝
Here’s another one straight outta FinServ. A billionaire investor commented on a Bed Bath & Beyond tweet and punctuated it with the full-moon face at the end. This guy got in trouble for a securities violation, but we have a different point to make: The moon looks vastly different across platforms!
Lesson 3: Careful With Translations
Google, Samsung, Apple… those are just a few platforms that translate the moon face emoji differently. What looks like a moon on one system might look like a plain old happy face on another. Or a wheel of cheese. So, what Google viewers might be interpreting as stock prices rocketing to the moon, others might be reading as a total stinker. 🧀
Eggplant 🍆
Honestly, do we even need to explain this one? And while we’re on the topic, avoid the peach, too. 🍑
Lesson 4: Stay in Your Lane
If you’re neither a chef nor a farmer, you have no business using either of these. 🧑🌾
Skull 💀
We don’t have a court case to cite for this one; more of a personal anecdote. When my colleague started receiving skull emojis from her friend a few years ago, she was wondering why that friend of hers kept invoking death in their texts. Turns out, it was just a Gen-Z way of saying she was dying laughing or dying of shock, and not a harbinger of imminent doom.
Lesson 5: Slang Belongs Elsewhere
The skull is a favorite among Gen Z, and millennials love their crying-laughing face, but a workplace is a mosaic of generations and cultures. Either save the slang for that group chat with the weird name or contextualize your emojis so that your teammates don’t assume you’re crying, or that someone just died. 😂
Your Final Emoji Lesson 🏁
Emojis are fun! But like any new-ish method of communication, they also come with their fair share of confusion, whether it’s from normal human error or variations in technology. Proceed with caution and you’ll be just fine.
Kudos to this awesome video for helping inform our post, especially the moon face section! ⬇️