Email--especially work email--can be confusing. Since it's one-dimensional, there's no body language to infer tone from, no cues to pick up on, which can leave the recipient with more questions than answers. Is my boss mad at me? Did I do something wrong? What do all those exclamations mean--are they excited or mad?
And what if you receive an email from your boss or a co-worker with a smiley face in it? It turns out, there are actually deeper psychological implications to the smiley face email.
What are they?? Click to find the answer.
The answer is that they genuinely are trying to be nice, because they know that you more likely to interpret their email in a negative way.
Why? Because that's human nature. Studies show that people read emails as more negative than they really are. So, a positive email is read as neutral, and a neutral email is read as negative.
Bosses know that they can come off as harsh when writing to reports--so they try to soften the message with things like exclamation points and smiley face emoticons.
So, next time you freak out about an email from your boss--take a deep breath. It's not as bad as it seems. If you're reading it as negative, it's really neutral. If they throw in an emoji or weird punctuation, they are just trying to compensate for the one-dimensional nature of email. It's awkward on both sides, so use the email as an opportunity to talk face to face and address any lingering issues. Say "Hey, I got your email, and I'd love to talk about my performance on X project. How am I doing?" Chances are, the feedback will be positive and the communication lines will be more open than ever.
See, don't you feel better already?
