Man Office Worker Emoji
U+1F468 U+200D U+1F4BC:man_office_worker:Skin tonesAbout Man Office Worker π¨βπΌ
Man Office Worker () is part of the People & Body group in Unicode. Added in Unicode E4.0. Type on GitHub and Slack to use it. Click copy above to grab it, paste it anywhere.
Works in iMessage, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, Instagram, Twitter, Gmail, and every app that supports Unicode. Pick a skin tone above to customize it.
Often associated with architect, business, man, and 4 more keywords.
Meaning varies across cultures, see cultural notes below.
Scroll down for the full story: meaning, trends, combos, and more.
How it looks
What does it mean?
A man in a suit and tie carrying a briefcase. The universal shorthand for white-collar work, corporate life, and professional identity. Part of the Emoji 4.0 (2016) profession batch proposed by Google employees using Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The ZWJ sequence combines π¨ (Man) with πΌ (Briefcase), making the briefcase the defining symbol of office work in the emoji system.
The emoji covers a lot of ground: accountant, manager, salesperson, consultant, secretary, executive, or any suit-wearing professional. Unicode named it "office worker" rather than "businessman" or "executive" to keep it inclusive of the entire white-collar spectrum. In practice, people read it as whatever corporate role fits their context.
There's an ironic dimension to it now. The same emoji that LinkedIn professionals use sincerely ("new role announcement π¨βπΌ") gets wielded by Gen Z as shorthand for corporate absurdity. "Standing on business π¨βπΌ" became a viral meme in 2024 after Drake used the phrase and Druski made a TikTok skit about it. The emoji lives in both worlds: genuine professionalism and ironic corporate cosplay.
LinkedIn is its natural habitat. Job announcements, promotions, "day in the life" content, and corporate milestones all feature π¨βπΌ. On TikTok and Twitter, the tone flips: it's used ironically for "corporate drone" humor, anti-work memes, and the "standing on business" trend.
During COVID, remote workers used 80% more emoji according to Slack data, with β€οΈ overtaking π as the most-used workplace emoji. The office worker emoji's context shifted too: from representing in-person corporate life to symbolizing the remote worker still showing up in a virtual meeting with a button-up shirt over pajama pants.
The "quiet quitting" and "act your wage" movements of 2022-2024 gave the emoji another layer. When someone posts π¨βπΌ alongside anti-work commentary, the suit becomes a costume rather than an identity. Emojipedia's blog on office emojis noted that the necktie emoji ironically often appears on a blue shirt, giving the "white collar" worker a literal blue collar.
It represents a man in a professional business role. Unicode named it 'office worker' to cover the entire white-collar spectrum: accountant, manager, consultant, executive, or any suit-wearing professional. In 2024, it also became the 'standing on business' emoji.
What it means from...
If your crush sends π¨βπΌ, he's probably signaling his career ("just got a promotion π¨βπΌ") or using the "standing on business" meme. In dating contexts, the suit-and-briefcase emoji communicates stability and professional ambition, which some people find attractive and others find boring. Read the room.
"Still at work π¨βπΌ" or "heading into the meeting π¨βπΌ" are standard partner texts. Also used when one partner is getting ready for something professional and wants to signal they're in work mode. The ironic version: "they want me in the office five days a week π¨βπΌπ."
Friends deploy this for career celebrations ("he got the job π¨βπΌ"), gentle corporate roasting ("look at you in a suit π¨βπΌ"), and the omnipresent "standing on business" usage. Also appears when a friend does something impressively responsible.
Parents use it when their kid gets their first corporate job (proud moment). Siblings use it to roast the family member who "sold out" to corporate. In family group chats, it often accompanies career milestones or work complaints.
The native emoji of Slack channels and Teams chats. Used sincerely for professional identity and ironically for corporate humor. "Back to back meetings today π¨βπΌ" is a cry for help disguised as a status update.
On social media, strangers use it in "standing on business" memes, career commentary, and the ironic "I am a professional" energy that fuels corporate TikTok.
Flirty or friendly?
Rarely flirty on its own. It's a career/identity emoji. The closest it gets to romantic territory is in dating profiles where it signals professional ambition, which some people find attractive. The "standing on business" usage adds confidence, which can read as appealing. But by default it's about work, not romance.
Emoji combos
Origin story
The office worker emoji is part of the 2016 Google proposal that added 16 careers to the emoji keyboard, selected using U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and UN International Labour Organization data. The briefcase (πΌ) as the profession symbol taps into decades of white-collar iconography: the briefcase has been shorthand for professional work since at least the mid-20th century.
In Japan, the emoji maps directly onto the salaryman (γ΅γ©γͺγΌγγ³) archetype: a man in a dark suit with a briefcase, commuting on packed trains, working long hours. The salaryman is both a respected social role and a cautionary tale. Japan has a word for death by overwork: karoshi (ιε΄ζ»), with an estimated 2,000 annual claims filed by families and potentially 10,000 non-suicide karoshi deaths per year. The briefcase emoji carries this weight in Japanese digital culture.
By 2024, the emoji had been recontextualized by two opposing forces. On one side, "standing on business" turned the suited professional into a symbol of commitment and follow-through, popularized by Drake's album For All The Dogs and Druski's viral TikTok. On the other, the "quiet quitting" and "act your wage" movements used the same corporate imagery to critique hustle culture.
Added in Emoji 4.0 (November 2016) as part of 16 profession emojis. ZWJ sequence: (Man) + (ZWJ) + (Briefcase). The πΌ Briefcase emoji dates to Unicode 6.0 (2010). The gender-neutral π§βπΌ Office Worker was added in Emoji 12.1 (2019). Supports five Fitzpatrick skin tone modifiers.
Design history
- 2016Google proposes 16 professional emojis including Man Office Worker (May)β
- 2016Man Office Worker (π¨βπΌ) added in Emoji 4.0 (November)β
- 2019Gender-neutral π§βπΌ Office Worker added in Emoji 12.1
- 2020COVID shifts office emoji context as remote workers use 80% more emojiβ
- 2024'Standing on business' meme gives π¨βπΌ new life as a commitment/follow-through symbolβ
Around the world
The briefcase-and-suit aesthetic is a Western default, but the concept it represents varies globally. In Japan, the salaryman is a cultural archetype defined by total corporate loyalty, long hours, and after-work drinking with colleagues. The briefcase is literally part of the uniform you'll see at 3am on Tokyo trains. Japan's concept of karoshi (death from overwork) gives the emoji a darker undertone in Japanese culture.
In China, a similar concept called 996 (9am-9pm, 6 days a week) fueled the tang ping ("lie flat") movement, which is the Chinese predecessor of Western quiet quitting. The office worker emoji in Chinese internet culture can represent either aspiration or exhaustion, depending on context.
In many parts of the developing world, a suit and briefcase still carry strong aspirational weight. Securing a white-collar office job represents upward mobility. The emoji reads as achievement rather than drudgery in these contexts.
Microsoft's 2025 Work Trend Index reports that the average knowledge worker now receives 153 Teams messages per day, and emoji have become essential shorthand in fast-moving professional chats.
It means taking care of your responsibilities, following through on your word, or showing you mean what you say. The phrase went viral after Drake's 2023 album and Druski's TikTok skit. When someone uses π¨βπΌπ―, they're signaling commitment.
The suit-and-briefcase visual maps directly onto Japan's salaryman archetype. Japan has karoshi (death from overwork) with an estimated 2,000+ annual claims. The emoji carries heavier cultural weight in Japanese digital communication.
Popularity ranking
Often confused with
Person in Suit Levitating (π΄οΈ) is a mysterious silhouette in a suit and fedora, originally based on the 2 Tone Records logo depicting reggae musician Peter Tosh. Despite both wearing suits, they represent completely different things: π¨βπΌ is corporate life, π΄οΈ is mysterious cool.
Person in Suit Levitating (π΄οΈ) is a mysterious silhouette in a suit and fedora, originally based on the 2 Tone Records logo depicting reggae musician Peter Tosh. Despite both wearing suits, they represent completely different things: π¨βπΌ is corporate life, π΄οΈ is mysterious cool.
Office Worker (π§βπΌ) is the gender-neutral version added in 2019. π¨βπΌ specifically represents a male-presenting professional. Use π§βπΌ when gender doesn't matter.
Office Worker (π§βπΌ) is the gender-neutral version added in 2019. π¨βπΌ specifically represents a male-presenting professional. Use π§βπΌ when gender doesn't matter.
π¨βπΌ is the office worker emoji (man + briefcase). π΄οΈ is Person in Suit Levitating, a mysterious silhouette based on the 2 Tone Records ska logo, designed by the creator of Comic Sans. Despite both wearing suits, they have completely different origins and vibes.
Do's and don'ts
- βUse it for genuine career celebrations and professional identity
- βUse it ironically for corporate humor in appropriate contexts
- βPair it with π― for 'standing on business' energy
- βUse in LinkedIn and professional platform content
- βUse it to reduce someone's identity to their job
- βRespond to anti-work posts with sincere hustle culture energy (read the room)
- βAssume it means 'boss' or 'executive' specifically (it covers all office roles)
Frequently, especially by Gen Z. It's used both sincerely (LinkedIn career posts) and ironically (corporate humor, anti-work memes, quiet quitting commentary). Same emoji, different platform, completely different tone.
Absolutely. It's one of the most natural emojis for LinkedIn. Use it in job announcements, career milestone posts, and professional bios. A 2022 Adobe report found 68% of workers liked when colleagues used emojis, considering them a sign of likability and credibility.
Caption ideas
Aesthetic sets
Type it as text
Fun facts
- β’Slack reported that remote workers used 80% more emoji during COVID-19 lockdowns. The β€οΈ replaced π as the most popular workplace emoji as people craved emotional connection through screens.
- β’Japan's salaryman archetype, with an estimated 2,000 annual karoshi claims, gives the briefcase-and-suit emoji a much darker cultural subtext than it carries in Western contexts.
- β’The levitating man emoji (π΄οΈ) is based on the 2 Tone Records logo depicting reggae musician Peter Tosh. It was designed by Vincent Connare, the same person who created Comic Sans. Despite both wearing suits, it has nothing to do with the office worker emoji.
- β’The '#ActYourWage' hashtag surpassed 300 million views in 2023, and China's tang ping ('lie flat') movement predated quiet quitting by a year. The office worker emoji became a battleground between hustle culture and its critics across multiple continents.
Common misinterpretations
- β’The sincere LinkedIn use and the ironic TikTok use of π¨βπΌ can collide. Posting 'standing on business π¨βπΌ' on LinkedIn reads as corporate motivation. Posting the same thing on TikTok reads as a meme. Same emoji, different platform, completely different tone.
- β’Some people read π¨βπΌ as specifically 'boss' or 'executive' when it was designed for any office role. A receptionist or data entry clerk is equally represented by this emoji.
In pop culture
- β’The 'standing on business' meme, powered by Drake's For All The Dogs and Druski's viral skit, made π¨βπΌ one of the most-used emojis on TikTok in early 2024. Users showed off 'standing on business' poses and formations.
- β’The Office (NBC, 2005-2013) is the definitive cultural text of cubicle life humor. Michael Scott's cringe-worthy corporate enthusiasm spawned thousands of memes that π¨βπΌ emoji captions regularly invoke.
- β’Emojipedia's corporate emoji blog post noted the irony that the necktie emoji often appears on a blue shirt across platforms, giving the 'white collar' worker a literal blue collar.
- β’The quiet quitting movement of 2022 and the 'act your wage' sequel in 2023 used corporate emoji as symbols of both the grind and the rejection of it. Reddit's r/antiwork grew from 100,000 to 2.8 million members during this period.
Trivia
For developers
- β’ZWJ sequence: (Man) + (ZWJ) + (Briefcase). No VS16 needed because πΌ is already an emoji character.
- β’Shortcodes: (GitHub), (Slack), (Discord). CLDR: .
- β’Skin tone on person: + + + .
- β’Part of the Emoji 4.0 profession family. All follow the same ZWJ pattern: person + object.
- β’Microsoft's 2025 Work Trend Index notes 153 Teams messages per day per worker. This emoji is a high-frequency candidate in workplace communication tools.
November 2016, in Emoji 4.0. Part of Google's proposal for 16 professional emojis. The gender-neutral version (π§βπΌ) followed in 2019.
See the full Emoji Developer Tools guide for regex patterns, encoding helpers, and more.
How do you use π¨βπΌ?
Select all that apply
- Man Office Worker Emoji (emojipedia.org)
- Google proposes professional women emojis (money.cnn.com)
- Standing on Business - Know Your Meme (knowyourmeme.com)
- COVID-19 is changing how workers use emoji (qz.com)
- Corporate Characters: Emojis in the Digital Workplace (blog.emojipedia.org)
- Japanese Salaryman (joyn.tokyo)
- Karoshi - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Act Your Wage replacing Quiet Quitting (thestreet.com)
- Man in Business Suit Levitating emoji (en.wikipedia.org)
- Quiet quitting and employee experience (the-future-of-commerce.com)
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