Career Design Center Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and Chairman: Hiromi Tada), which operates the job site "Woman Type" specializing in career changes for women, conducted a survey on "Workplace Communication" targeting 248 working women.

"Woman Type," a job site for women who want to work long-term as regular employees, regularly conducts [Data on "Women and Work"] to investigate women's real views on work and publicize the actual state of women's working environments.

▼Click here for details.

https://woman-type.jp/academia/discover-career/data/vol-132/

Survey Results Excerpts

★Over 60% of people feel stress from "phone calls"

★20s and 30s feel "familiarity and reassurance" from "!" in work messages, while 40s and 50s feel it's "inappropriate"

★62.9% are "concerned" about work-related contact outside of working hours

★67.4% feel a generational gap in workplace communication

【Q.1 Regarding workplace communication, how much stress do you feel by communication method?】

When asked about the level of stress (difficulty) felt by communication method in the workplace, "phone calls" had the highest percentage of people feeling stress. Combining "feel very much" (25.7%) and "feel somewhat" (35.9%), 61.6% responded that they feel stress.

On the other hand, for "email" and "chat tools," about 40% of respondents answered "don't feel much stress" or "don't feel stress," indicating a trend where many people do not feel stress from text communication.

Looking at "phone calls," the No. 1 communication method causing stress, by age group, the combined response rate for "feel very much" and "feel somewhat" was 69.6% for those in their 20s, 64.7% for those in their 30s, 57.7% for those in their 40s, and 52.3% for those in their 50s, showing a tendency for younger age groups to feel more stress from phone calls.

【Q.2 When "!" is used at the end of a work chat or email, what do you think?】

※Multiple answers allowed

※Excluding those who answered "I don't particularly think anything"

When asked about the impression of using "!" at the end of work chats or emails, "familiarity and reassurance" was the most common answer among those in their 20s (50.0%) and 30s (33.8%). This decreased with age, with 27.5% in their 40s and 30.0% in their 50s.

On the other hand, for those in their 40s and 50s, "I think it's inappropriate in a business setting" was the most common answer, with 31.9% for those in their 40s and 33.3% for those in their 50s.

【Q.3 When a chat or email ends with ".", what do you think?】

※Multiple answers allowed

※Excluding those who answered "I don't particularly think anything"

When asked about the impression of internal chats and emails ending with "." (period), "polite and good manners" was the most common answer among those in their 20s (35.3%), 40s (47.9%), and 50s (60.0%). For those in their 30s, "concise and easy to understand" (36.4%) was the most common answer.

On the other hand, "cold/distant" was answered by 29.4% of those in their 20s, compared to 21.8% in their 30s, 10.4% in their 40s, and 5.0% in their 50s, with the percentage decreasing as age increased.

【Q.4 What do you do if you receive work-related contact outside of working hours?】

When asked about how they handle work-related contact received outside of working hours, "judge urgency and respond if important" was the most common answer at 55.2%, followed by "check and reply immediately" at 16.5%.

On the other hand, combining "check but reply the next business day" (7.7%) and "intentionally do not check messages outside of working hours" (10.9%), it was found that 18.6% of people do not respond to contact outside of working hours.

【Q.5 Regarding contact outside of working hours, how do you feel?】

When asked about their thoughts on contact outside of working hours, "feel somewhat concerned" was the most common answer at 33.5%. Combined with "feel very concerned" (29.4%), 62.9% of people responded that they are concerned about contact outside of working hours.

The number of people who answered "don't feel much concern" (6.5%) and "don't feel concern at all" (3.2%) totaled only 9.7%, revealing that those who are not concerned about contact outside of working hours are a minority.

【Q.6 Do you feel a "generational gap" in workplace communication?】

When asked whether they feel a generational gap in workplace communication, "somewhat" was the most common answer at 45.6%. Combined with "very much" (21.8%), 67.4% of people reported feeling some form of generational gap in workplace communication.

【Q.7 What specifically is the "generational gap"?】

※Multiple answers allowed

Regarding the specific content of generational gaps felt in workplace communication, the top three were "wording/honorifics" (39.5%), "harassment standards" (37.9%), and "preference for communication methods" (35.9%).

It appears that differences in values regarding communication methods and expressions are creating generational gaps.

▼Click here for details.

https://woman-type.jp/academia/discover-career/data/vol-132/

※Survey data (graphs) may not sum to 100% due to rounding of figures below the second decimal place.

※This survey targeted individuals who identify as "women."

★Consideration of this Survey★

Kayo Kobayashi, Editor-in-Chief of Woman Type

In recent years, remote work has become established in many companies, and text-based communication, primarily through chat, has become commonplace. Especially for younger generations who are digital natives, text messages are the primary means of communication even in their private lives, making them unaccustomed to real-time interactions like phone calls. We often hear that even with business chat, they tend to ignore messages until they can "gather their thoughts and reply." It's understandable that many people feel a high hurdle or stress with the method of "phone calls."

Furthermore, generational gaps are emerging based on this "text-centric culture." What's interesting is that the interpretation of the same symbols and expressions differs by generation. For those in their 20s and 30s, text is not just for information transfer but also a means of conveying emotions and warmth. Therefore, they may feel "coldness or anger" from a period (".") at the end of a sentence, and "familiarity and reassurance" from an exclamation mark ("!"). On the other hand, for those in their 40s and 50s, who have valued the manners of traditional business emails and face-to-face/phone communication, the period (".") is considered polite, and the exclamation mark ("!") tends to be seen as inappropriate for a business setting.

As the results show that about 70% feel a generational gap, there is no single "correct" way to communicate. The important thing is not to assume that what is common sense for you is the same for the other person. Instead of asking "who is right," adopting an attitude of trying to understand "why the other person feels that way" based on the premise of diverse values may be the first step toward smooth workplace communication.

Survey Details: 132nd "Tell Me! Workplace Communication" / Data on "Women and Work"

・Survey Period: May 8, 2026 - May 14, 2026

・Valid Responses: 248

・Target Audience: Woman Type Members

・Survey Method: Web-based questionnaire

List of "Data on Women and Work"

We regularly conduct surveys on the environment and issues surrounding working women, and you can view various survey results.

https://woman-type.jp/academia/discover-career/data/

What is "Woman Type"?

It is a job site for women who want to work long-term as regular employees. It features many popular job openings for women, including positions where one can become a regular employee without prior experience, jobs with less overtime allowing for a good work-life balance, and positions that allow for balancing work and childcare. The comprehensive matching function makes it easy to find a job that suits you.

https://woman-type.jp/

Company Profile of Career Design Center Co., Ltd.

Representative: Hiromi Tada, President and Chairman

Headquarters Location: Akasaka Long Beach Bldg., 3-21-20 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 107-0052

Capital: 558.66 million yen

Established: July 8, 1993

Number of Employees: 768 (as of September 30, 2025)

Business Activities:

・Operation of specialized career change information sites such as "type" and "Woman Type"

・Holding of job fairs

・Employment placement business (License No. 13-ユ-040429 from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare)

・"type Shokatsu" service supporting high-quality job hunting through magazines, events, information sites, and placement services

・"type IT Haken" IT industry-specialized temporary staffing service (License No. 派13-315344 from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare)

・Planning, editing, and operation of web magazines "Engineer type," "Woman type," and "20's type"

And other comprehensive solution services to support companies' recruitment activities.

FACT BOX

  • Source: PR TIMES
  • Category: アンケート結果