Survey: Some would use IM to fire people

updated 2:54 p.m. ET July 10, 2007

Learning that you’ve been fired can take many forms: A face-to-face meeting, a telephone call, the much-dreaded pink slip. But an instant message?

According to a new survey, 14 percent of men said they would use an IM with an emoticon — one of those animated faces that range from a happy grin to an angry screamer — to fire someone.

Only 11 percent of women reported the same, according to the nonscientific survey conducted by Yahoo!

When it’s a personal relationship that’s getting the boot, slightly fewer people would resort to an online chat to say “things just aren’t working out.”

At the same time, more than half of respondents said they would rather confess their feelings to a crush using an emoticon than in person. Ten percent said they’d even propose marriage via an instant message.

The survey included 40,000 Yahoo! Messenger users.

MORE FROM INTERNET

Internet Section Front

Parental software is aid, not answer No music video needed for YouTube success Imdb.com allows free film, TV viewing Best Buy to acquire music-sharer Napster Wall Street Journal launches social network Yahoo's home page to get makeover Virginia court strikes down anti-spam law One in five bosses screens applicants' Web lives Facebook gets another facelift VideoSurf hopes to ride Internet video wave Internet Section Front   Add Internet headlines to your news reader: