Why smiley face emojis should never be used in work emails

Apparently emojis are now used in emails and messages six billion times a day. In fact the little symbols, used to punctuate digital communications, are so commonplace that 92 per cent of the planet’s three billion-plus internet users admit to scattering them about their missives.

But now, rather pleasingly, some academics have come up with a study that could wipe the smile off those little yellow emojis.

Dr Ella Glickson, an authority in business and management at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, believes that finishing off your email to a colleague with a smiley face could have the opposite effect to an actual smile. She suggests: “Our findings provide evidence that, contrary to actual smiles, smileys do not increase perceptions of warmth and actually decrease perceptions of competence.”

The study even suggests that sprinkling an email with emojis can do serious damage to your job prospects by making colleagues less likely to take you seriously.