email and chat tone at work: what to write instead of kindly do the needful
"Kindly do the needful" is polite and perfectly clear in many Indian offices. To a colleague in London or Sydney, it can read as vague, or as an order dressed up as a request. The fix is not a fancier phrase. It is saying exactly what you need.
By Brightside English editorial team
Reviewed by a Brightside senior coach · · 1 min read
Replace "kindly do the needful" with the specific action, the deadline and, if useful, the reason. "Could you approve the invoice by Thursday, so we can pay the vendor on time?" is clear and polite to readers almost anywhere.
What we notice in coaching
Indian English has its own phrases, and they are not wrong. "Do the needful", "revert", "prepone" and "kindly" are understood across India. The trouble starts when the reader is in another country. They cannot act on "the needful" because they do not know which need you mean, and "revert" can read as "go back to an earlier version".
Global teams tend to read plain and specific as polite. Vague and formal can read as distant.
Write the action, not the category
"Hi Sarah, could you sign the attached contract and send it back by Friday? Our legal team needs it before the month closes. Thanks!"
The same rule works in chat. One message, one ask, with a time.
| Instead of | Try |
|---|---|
| "Kindly do the needful." | "Could you approve this by 3 pm today?" |
| "Please revert at the earliest." | "Please reply by Wednesday if you can." |
| "PFA." | "I've attached the report." |
| "Can we prepone the call?" | "Could we move the call earlier, to 10?" |
Published by The Full Stop, the journal of Brightside English. Reviewed by a Brightside senior coach. Corrections: see our editorial standard.