Reports say that an employee working for a bar in China was fired for replying a company group message with an “OK” emoji – ridiculous right?
According to the report, the employee’s manager had asked for meeting documents to be sent via WeChat, which she replied to with the emoji – you know, the hand gesture version of “OK”. Her manager didn’t take to the casual nature of her reply too kindly and had her resign from her post.
Why this is not ok
This brings the discussion of chatting apps as a means of communication among colleagues and superiors. Let’s talk – any governing body that requires, or accepts the usage of chatting apps should take into account the non-formal nature of such a means of communication.
Part of what emojis serve in an app is to lighten the mood – shake things up from the mundane and bring in casual vibes. Surely a business that frown upon casual work-related interactions wouldn’t have a group chat in the first place – e-mails have been the go-to option for years.
Now, the report for the story quotes the manager as saying “You should text to reply to the message, don’t you know the rules?” – this implies that certain rules have been set initially that we’re assuming has “Thou shalt not use emojis” printed in bold. Given the prominence of chatting apps, texting with emojis have become somewhat instinctive to literally anyone who texts.
What we say is – if you want to keep things formal, stick to e-mails; if you’re not allergic to emojis, use chatting apps, they’re so useful.