A picture can convey a thousand words. And now, thanks to this latest study from career experts Resume.io, a picture can also convey a thousand emotions, including those that are really hard to talk about.
The design team at Resume.io created 8 new Slack emojis to help remote workers share their ‘feels’ with colleagues, encouraging everyone to pay more attention to mental health in the workplace.
It’s a fun but serious way to acknowledge that many of us struggle with our emotions at work but often don’t have a safe outlet to ask for support or just let someone know what we’re going through.
A problem shared really is a problem halved. Numerous scientific studies have shown that telling someone how we feel can have a profoundly healing effect. Releasing pent-up feelings reduces stress, alleviates the symptoms of depression, makes us feel more optimistic, and even strengthens our immune system.
Moreover, paying closer attention to our negative feelings and finding ways to manage or work through them is often an essential step toward personal and professional development. Speaking about her experiences of depression and anxiety, the novelist Emery Lord said,
“My ‘dark days’ made me stronger. Or maybe I was already strong, and these tough times were an opportunity to prove it to myself.”
The Slack ‘sharing is caring’ emojis focus on some of the most common workplace mental health challenges, including feeling overwhelmed, the importance of self-care, and the loneliness of being a remote worker.
And there’s a special emoji representing a massive issue affecting millions of workers, especially those high-achievers who appear to take on the entire world without ever breaking stride or a sweat. It’s called Imposter Syndrome, and it describes those nagging feelings that tell us we’re never quite good enough and that our success is underserved.
The emoji pack can be downloaded here. Read below to find out more about them:
Slack emojis to help employees communicate mental health at work, courtesy of Resume.io
