(Please answer if you are a neurodiverse person struggling to read other people's emotions in offline conversations: I'd love to hear your thoughts on this)
I often hear an opinion that there is no place for emoji in professional communication. Generally I avoid them myself, preferring other, lengthier means to express my feelings, but time to time I can use a smiley as an ice breaker. It is also pretty clear to me that whatever standard of professional communication developed many years ago, it is not set in stone: communications evolve together with our culture and we do not speak Shakespearean or the language of Victorian society anymore. Emoji are on track to become an universal and cross-cultural language that enriches our communication with empathy: why would we exclude such a powerful tool from our professional life? Do you use emoji at work? How do you feel when you see someone else using them? Is there any trend or a curious observation that you can share?
Works fine in startup, probably not that well in huge corporation.
As for understanding emotions - I struggle to understand them in-person too…