quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:
I think she should ask what it’s about. Not in a formal wtf, but a hey, I got this emoji, and I’m afraid I don’t get it’s relevance or pertinence-

I would definitely advise against bringing this up. There's no upside to be gained and lots of possible downsides.

"What! You don't know what this means??? Since you don't know what this means, then you must be an outsider and I must destroy you."

A kissy face of any kind from a male supervisor to a female subordinate is suspect. Very suspect.

Do you know how many times I have ever sent such an emoji to any female subordinate? Exactly never. Nor to a male subordinate. Or any coworker, ever. How hard is this to figure out?

Report it as an UNWELCOME SEXUAL ADVANCE, period. Let the rest of HR sort it out.

I once attended a mandatory HR class in workplace behavior for managers. It was a CYA class to minimize the damage of sexual harassment lawsuits. During that class the instructor showed a stick figure drawing of Kokopelli (https://symbolsage.com/kokopelli-symbol-meaning-and-significance/). She asked if anyone found the image offensive. No one in the class found it offensive. She explained that if a drawing of Kokopelli was hung at a workspace and anyone found it offensive, then it was offensive and needed to be taken down.


Long winded explanation for this: sending a rainbow unicorn is WAY more offensive than a stick figure. It would seem that any employee receiving a rainbow unicorn has justification to report it to HR as it could be interpreted as a sexual advance.

Once again, I'm reminded of why I started by own business.

A big part of it was to get away from the HR types and political correctness. I feel for people who have to work in places that have it.

I guess we got to get to the point where we don’t make anything so we don’t offend anybody.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:
I think she should ask what it’s about. Not in a formal wtf, but a hey, I got this emoji, and I’m afraid I don’t get it’s relevance or pertinence-

I would definitely advise against bringing this up. There's no upside to be gained and lots of possible downsides.

"What! You don't know what this means??? Since you don't know what this means, then you must be an outsider and I must destroy you."

I see what you’re saying, but speaking as a gal who has kept her mouth shut in situations like this before, all it does is invite more of the same, because since I said nothing, it was perceived as ok to do. Just my 2 cents of experience in the workplace. I never rang the bell on my male coworkers, but on at least 1 occasion, I confronted the individual who harassed me, and it stopped right there. I wish I’d been braver sooner. I really hope this is a simple misunderstanding and something like P220smudge had happen to him. The sooner the air is cleared, the better.

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:
I think she should ask what it’s about. Not in a formal wtf, but a hey, I got this emoji, and I’m afraid I don’t get it’s relevance or pertinence-

I would definitely advise against bringing this up. There's no upside to be gained and lots of possible downsides.

"What! You don't know what this means??? Since you don't know what this means, then you must be an outsider and I must destroy you."

I see what you’re saying, but speaking as a gal who has kept her mouth shut in situations like this before, all it does is invite more of the same, because since I said nothing, it was perceived as ok to do. Just my 2 cents of experience in the workplace. I never rang the bell on my male coworkers, but on at least 1 occasion, I confronted the individual who harassed me, and it stopped right there. I wish I’d been braver sooner. I really hope this is a simple misunderstanding and something like P220smudge had happen to him. The sooner the air is cleared, the better.

My wife says the exact same thing. Speak up.

She’s a high-senior manager at a very large IT firm.

Well she discussed it with her boss and he did not deliberately or knowingly send the emoji.

She contacted her IT department who told her that since her work phone was a company phone that they would have to wipe it clean and put it back to factory settings.

He also advised that we both turn off our personal phone and take them to an at&t apple store have have them look at them for a virus and or also save and back up the phones and wipe them and put them back to factory settings.

The IT guy and AT&T/apple store both advised that IPhone viruses were very rare but possible. My google search told me the same at that most iphone viruses were on phones that were jailbroke.

So off to at&t/apple to see if they can work us in today which I find highly unlikely since its almost six her and they close at eight and we are at least an hour away.

I would suspect the “sender” client of the email infection first.

Seems a bit excessive.


It's not a virus. Its an emoji sticker that is an option you can send through text. The box with the down arrow allows you to save the photo into your photo album.


Whether the guy sent it on purpose or accident is a whole other matter.

Shouldn't really be that complicated to determine whether it's coming from the sender, or a "virus" on the receiver's phone, should it?

Can't Mrs. Mustang's boss just look at his "sent" texts? That should show whether he had attached the icon, either deliberately or inadvertently.

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:
I think she should ask what it’s about. Not in a formal wtf, but a hey, I got this emoji, and I’m afraid I don’t get it’s relevance or pertinence-

I would definitely advise against bringing this up. There's no upside to be gained and lots of possible downsides.

"What! You don't know what this means??? Since you don't know what this means, then you must be an outsider and I must destroy you."

I see what you’re saying, but speaking as a gal who has kept her mouth shut in situations like this before, all it does is invite more of the same, because since I said nothing, it was perceived as ok to do. Just my 2 cents of experience in the workplace. I never rang the bell on my male coworkers, but on at least 1 occasion, I confronted the individual who harassed me, and it stopped right there. I wish I’d been braver sooner. I really hope this is a simple misunderstanding and something like P220smudge had happen to him. The sooner the air is cleared, the better.

I would ask if it happens again. I also reread the OP and saw it was a text and not an email which makes it more personal. I wouldn't text an emoji other than a smiley face to a coworker and that only on a personal communication. Texting an emoji especially with a heart especially from a boss and a new boss at that is unprofessional to say the least.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Shouldn't really be that complicated to determine whether it's coming from the sender, or a "virus" on the receiver's phone, should it?

Can't Mrs. Mustang's boss just look at his "sent" texts? That should show whether he had attached the icon, either deliberately or inadvertently.

Yes sorry I was in a hurry and left that out of my last post.
he denied sending it and first said it wasn't he his sent text to he them oh ugh wait it was indeed in his text history. It can right ahead but with but separately to the text he sent her that was business related.

I also left out the weird thing that happened with the text string between her and him and the text string between she and I.

His name went missing from his and her text string and his text string to her showed up in the text string between she and I. Thats when her IT guy said because its a company phone and since that happened he said I have to wipe your phone and put it back to factory settings.

The results of the trip to the apple store were that and I told her that I had done a software update to my phone a day or two before but that I had not seen the square box with the arrow icon before last night. So I asked her if she had done the newest update to her phone and she said she had not as she had just received it and had not done it yet.

Well the tech at apple said that its a new feature with the latest update that when you now tap the send/save box or whatever its called that it automatically sends the picture back to the sender and also saves it to your pictures.

Why they created this crap I have no idea nor did he as all one had to do previously was tap on the picture which brings up the menu to text it to someone in your texting history or email it or save it to pictures.

He per my request turned off the feature that send it back to the sender when tapped but it still is set to save to my pictures when tapped.

Just more useless crap IMO but doesn't explain why its doing it on my wife's phone prior to her doing the update.

quote:

Originally posted by Nismo:
Seems a bit excessive.


It's not a virus. Its an emoji sticker that is an option you can send through text. The box with the down arrow allows you to save the photo into your photo album.

Just to be clear its a box with an arrow pointing down not a circle with an X in it.

Play clueless and ask what it means. If it’s some pride month thing file it away. I don’t think it’s any kind of come on. Work and emojis don’t mix. If they don’t have a relationship where this stuff is appropriate then the guy overstepped.

Ignore and move on.