The Smiley Face Habit
Duaa Elzeney - ITIL, CSM
Revenue Generator & Project Manager ?? Former Brookings, McKinsey, Airbus Group ?? 4M+ Content Views on LinkedIn & Viral Content
What you think when you see the following in an email :)? Do you feel more confidence in the writer? More comfortable? More at ease?
The reality is that the smiley face has infiltrated business emails at all levels. It is used to break tension over a request. Or to level the playing field with someone of higher authority. Or to smooth over a mistake made.
For whatever purpose a smiley face is used in a business email, it shouldn’t be used. It’s never effective and should simply be eliminated, unless it’s used in a personal context. If that is the case, personal emails shouldn’t be sent through work email accounts.
As the work days get longer and often seep into the weekend, it may be hard to maintain a healthy boundary between one’s work and personal life. Work starts to be personal since it can tend to be round the clock. This has led to the infiltration of smiley faces into work emails. It starts to look and sound a little like high school. (And I'm not even touching on the topic of LOL or other acronyms that also have made it into work emails.)
If you wish to break tension or win someone over, do this the good old-fashioned way – in person. And while taking the time to build relationships and collaborative partnerships. At the very least, pick up the phone and make personal contact.
The worst case scenario is a business email with a smiley face will make you look unprofessional, lacking in authority, lacking in discipline, and quite simply immature. You will appear as someone who is unable to build effective, collaborative work relationships – since that would be the reality. If you are a manager and you send smiley faces? You will be forever labelled as weak and ineffective in managing. You’ll be viewed by your staff as someone that can be easily manipulated; without a backbone.
And whatever you do, start to reintroduce healthy boundaries between your work life and personal life. It is essential to a productive work life to unplug daily from work. This may allow you to break the ‘smiley face habit.’
Find me on twitter: @duaaelzeney
Corporate & Investment Banking - Director - Policy & Regulatory Change Managment
5 年Duaa Elzeney thank you for sharing. This is excellent advice. Question: this is partially influenced by the way different generations communicate. Do you think it’s a matter of good training and getting messages out, such as this one, to get everyone on the same page?
Supply Chain & Mobility Professional
10 年Why so serious ? Personally i think this symbol just mean to express the sender's friendliness towards the recipient. If you dont like it, just ignore the symbol.
Colorado SBA 7a Small Lender Of The Year 2024…SBA Podcast of the Year 2025 (SBA Today show)-Coleman Report, VP, CO SBA “Producing” Manager, Making a difference via authenticity, transparency expertise and a bit of humor!
10 年It is hard enough to get emails across at work with the intent of the message correctly received, as miscommunications through email are common. Although emoticons can be overused, they are helpful in conveying the message just as body language helps convey messages in person.
Information and cybersecurity
10 年Successfull communication depends on the ability to speak a language both parts understand, why limit yourself when you should adapt?
BI Developer at Carilion Clinic
10 年Personally I find them unprofessional in general; however, I also consider the audience. I don't take offense or label the sender if I receive one and I will likely respond in kind. There are times when I will use it to convey tone but, again, it will depend on my audience.