I don't need to experiment with not using emoji. I am old enough to have a working life before they existed. In those days all online discussions became a huge argument very quickly. Passive-aggressive memos with bosses cc'ed in flew about constantly. In-person meetings were hastily convened on a regular basis to sort things out. Usually all that needed sorted out was a stupid misunderstanding, and the root cause was usually a misreading of tone followed by an emotional overreaction somewhere in the chain of emails.

My 18-year old son, who I mostly communicate through text messages, went cold on me recently. I assumed he was angry about something so I called him. No, he had decided to give up using 'childish' emoji. I asked him to reconsider.

I am firmly of the opinion that emoji are incredibly useful and that normal speech is full of emotion and playfulness that hastily written text cannot convey. You should therefore be using them in your workplace. If you don't use emoji you will be misunderstood. No matter how well written your prose is the recipients may only have time to skim-read it.

Using emoji are, in my opinion, very 'professional'.