The on thing in an email pisses me off more than “Do the needful”, Or “raised a request”, or even referring to me by my last name is ending an email with “Please advise”.......

Holy Hell. I have never wanted to reach through my monitor and slap the shit out of someone so much. Want to piss me off. Yeah. Finish an email with please advise. Gharrrr!!!

1. "Do the needful" sounds like a request to do whatever is needed without sticking their dick into shit and telling you what to do, no idea how that can upset somebody

2. "Raised a request", how else would somebody relay e.g. a feature request to you? or does it upset you that the person is named?

3. Last name is just considered polite in a lot of countries and even deeply rude if not, especially in a workspace that isn't your mum's and pap's Pizzashop.

4. "Please advise" they want your opinion on something, yet being polite

Might be just me being tired but it does seem like you simply have no real life problems and just imagine them or I misunderstood every single one of them.

Looks like someone works with Accenture, Infosys, Deloitte, Tata, Hitachi, or Cognizant.

@JoshBent once a direct email is sent, you are looking for a fix. You are done waiting on L1/L2 to dick around with it. You want someone to fix it. I am not referring to some one calling me mr smith. Rather just saying “Smith”. Far be it from any pizza shop.

As far as the please advise go, it is seen as passive aggressive. Just sign the email with “thanks”, and I will be far more likely to be more helpful in getting the shit fixed.

@ICH408I if I’m right in my guess, they honestly don’t know that custom “doesn’t translate” well.

We turned “do the needful” into a running team joke about going to the bathroom.

Team Member 1: “Where’s Team Member 0?”
TM2: “Doing the needful.”

Hey! There is nothing holy here!

Just out of curiosity, what would you rather hear than those things?

@hashedram I’m not OP but here is my conversion chart:

“Do the needful” ==> “Make sure to do <task> X”

“raised a request” ==> {
“Created Ticket ###” ||
“I need a <type> Ticket”
}

“<LName> please advise” ==>
“<Fname>,
I need to sync with you on X, <msg protocol> me. Thanks!”

@bkwilliams ah so the mail's aren't specific enough. This is the exact opposite of what annoys me though. I hate specific mails saying "Do X in Y way". I'd prefer to know the result so I can do it in whatever way I see fit.

@hashedram correct, by being vague “do the needful” accomplishes two things:
1) I am not telling you how to do your job
2) If I’m wrong about (or don’t know) the steps of your job, I don’t have to hear about it.

The majority of “the needful” I get leave a lot to be desired on the details of the situation. There seem to be a lot of folks that say “it’s broke” and won’t give a clue to go on (without a series of questions on what the heck is going on).

Maybe that is why “please advise” pisses me off as such. Usually it follows a generalized statement about a workflow or process with no real question being asked. There may be hints of a question littered through the email, but nothing that comes straight out and asks a question. Which either leads to a half a dozen follow up questions, or one long email on the general state of the process.