Slashdot Mirror
Emoticons in the Workplace
Platonic writes "According to the New York Times, the Emoticon has become much more than something the kids do after school. The little guys seem to have found their way into the workforce: being used by stock brokers and even the U.S. Military.
From TFA: 'I mean, it's ludicrous," said Ms. Feldman, 25. "I'm not going to feel better about losing hundreds of thousands of dollars because someone puts a frown face to regretfully inform me.'"
:-O
This display of unprofessionalism is most upsetting. As a result, I've sent out a memo to the office banning the use of emoticons in work-related matters. It's written in Comic Sans MS.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
After the market damage from last week my broker sent me this
IM IN UR PORTFOLIO
SHORTING UR GUGULS
The story you cite is from 2001.
Evidence the story is seriously dated can be found in the byline, as well as in this snippet: The firestorm of controversy even led to an entire newsthread discussing the lawsuit on the highly respected tech-news site Slashdot,...
omgponies roflmao
#;o)>
A few years ago, I received an email filled with bouncing hearts from a person at a client company. WTF?!? I had no idea who this person was. I didn't recognize the name and knew I'd never communicated with her in any way in the past. I sent her the information she'd requested being careful to use the most neutral, professional prose I could muster. Then I looked at the code on her email and saw it was pulling images from one of those "free emoticons" sites. Turns out she'd installed a toolbar that added a bunch of crap to all of her outgoing emails. It was early February so it was adding valentine hearts to everything. Sure enough, after valentine's day, it switched to shamrocks. Apparently someone told her about it because the graphics disappeared before switching to bunnies and eggs.
While I agree that it is no longer reserved for tweens who can't type, people need to realize that it is and always will be part of informal writing. To say "it is for expressing feelings, but via a text message" is stupid because we have WORDS to do that. Hence, using emoticons in formal writing is just your signal to the world that you have no writing skills. It doesn't just apply to emoticons:
Informal:
"wtfm8?"
Formal:
"Sir, I am absolutely flabbergasted that you would insult my intelligence with such incoherent dribble."
(.Y.)
/. This font doesn't do it right.
damnit
You mad
Hello, I am writing to you on behalf of my master Price Robert II of Bolivia :)
:( We have approximately 2 billion US dollars ( :D ) in our Swiss bank account, of which we are prepared to give you half if you assist us. Our chaffeur recently died of an allergic reaction to prawns, we have no money left to get the taxi to the bank from our hotel, and we can't be arsed walking -.-
;) ) on the way? We will then print out the PayPal monies using our PayPal Industrial Monies Printer \o/
We seem to have undergone a slight mishap
Could you please send us $500 via PayPal to this address, to cover the cost of the taxi and maybe a short visit to a stripclub ( (.Y.)
Thankyou for any assistance you can provide *hug* We promise that we will get the money wired to you as soon as we reach the bank, you can trust us ^____________^
We use Jabber and(...)
:)
Dear sir,
I formally inform you my apprecciation on your choice of IM systems.
Yours,
Keeboo Booboo
Ps.:
What you post on Slashdot doesn't answer the issue of "Emoticons in the Workplace".
:)
On second thought, I guess it does.
But with bad news, it would help convey a sense of understanding or empathy. For example:
:-(
Mr. Johnson,
Your employment here at MegaCorp is terminated, effective immediately
Director,
Human Resources
I don't like your tone.. are you trying to say that I read comments too quickly, and get all huffy? How could you be so mean? *cries*
which is totally what she said
( o )_( o ) ... opps, Freudian slip.
A future copy of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, that slipped through a worm-hole, had this to say about Ms. Feldman...
"The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth." ~1984 George Orwell
But with bad news, it would help convey a sense of understanding or empathy. For example:
:-)
Mr. Johnson,
Your employment here at MegaCorp is terminated, effective immediately
Director,
Human Resources
"pr0n": An anagram of "porn," possibly indicating the use of pornography. - www.microsoft.com
Clever, working the "penis and testicles" emoticon into your last sentence, there. Thought no one would notice, did you? You sick bastard.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
what kind of slashdotter weighs 300 lbs?
oh, wait.
a short one on an intramural team.
sarcasm:
-noun
1. harsh or bitter derision or irony.
The actual death count at Chernobyl was vastly exaggerated by the media
--I'm so big, my sig has its own sig.
-- See?
Clearly you're right. There is no possible way to convey sarcasm in text without including an emoticon.
You clearly understand the difference between sarcasm and irony.
<tone xmlns="http://smileysarebad.com/xsd/tone">
<facetious>Hasn't XML, in its infinite glory in all applications, already given us a method that's a little less lame?</facetious>
</tone>
perl -e "eval pack(q{H*},join q{},qw{70 72696e74207061636b28717b482a7d2c717b343 637323635363534323533343430617d293b})"
<voice-impression>
<Teal-C>Indeed. Though is it not overly verbose for regular communications, Mr. Mensch?</Teal-C>
</voice-impression>
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
the actual death toll was (thankfully) closer to only a few dozen individuals. :-)"
:-)" (slurp, yum! spaghetti!!)
You need to be careful how you terminate sentences, quoting etc with emoticons.
That just looked as if you said:
the actual death toll was (thankfully) closer to only a few dozen individuals.
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
Fuck you, asshole! ;-)