Be careful with heart-emojis ❤ – they could be lost in translation!

Primark Amsterdam’s Store Manager responded to a Department Manager’s status update in June 2020 with heart-emojis.

Is that acceptable?

It all depends – I hear you thinking. And that is correct.
Let me not keep you in suspense any longer – those hearts got completely out of hand.

Not because the Store Manager behaved inappropriately, but because in 2022, a number of employees filed complaints of transgressive behaviour in response to those 2020 heart-emojis. Primark took this very seriously, suspended the Store Manager and hired Hoffmann corporate investigators to conduct interviews.

Primark went to court and requested termination of the employment contract.
The Store Manager requested reinstatement.

The judge ruled that the reports cannot be considered as transgressive, or otherwise culpable behaviour. There are also indications of conspiracy with a dubious motive in connection with a reorganisation.

The Amsterdam subdistrict court also considered that it could not be established with certainty that the Store Manager intended the message to be sexual or flirtatious. It is conceivable that he meant by this to communicate as he says. This does not alter the fact that communication is also about how something comes across or may come across to the recipient. At issue here is a message from a (male) manager, sent late on a Saturday night to a female subordinate using personal emojis. It is quite conceivable that, especially given the ambiguous meaning of the emojis used, this may have created an uneasy feeling for the recipient. After all, it is not exactly clear what is meant and heart-emojis still have a ‘love’ connotation in addition to ‘nice’. A manager can be expected to understand this and therefore refrain from such messaging.

The court dismissed the dismissal claim and ruled that the employee should be reinstated.

I’m a bit puzzled by that heart-emoji ❤
Five billion emojis are sent via Facebook every day. English research shows that 80% of all phone owners app with emojis.

On social media, the heart-emoji in the Dutch version is referred to as “awesome” (“geweldig”) rather than “love”.

In an enthusiastic moment, when you see a great post or message you press that heart in a flash!
Personally, I like it, it shows enthusiasm.
But in the working world, one should be well aware that emojis can be interpreted in different ways.