Irony and sarcasm are two different things.
Sarcasm is bitter, often used to attack people. This form of speech should, imo, be limited, because it is likely to hurt other people and spoil the conversation. Unless you can be reasonably sure that everybody in the group agrees about something. For example: I can be as sarcastic as I want to be at my Jesuit-lead university, as long as I limit myself to topics like the Opus Dei. This might be considered a bit cheap, of course.
Cynicism should be used even more carefully than sarcasm.
Irony: Not every sentence should be ironic. Each figure of speech can be overused - bad style. But I agree with Jim: People who do not understand irony at all are banned from my (private) company.
In business interactions, it is best (always imo) to steer clear of irony/sarcasm, because it can be misunderstood and you HAVE to deal with those people and don't want to anger them.
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