At first, I thought it was a quirky or slang way to say "please get this done"- like saying "have a better one" instead of "have a good one" to end a conversation...
But I was wrong. So very, very wrong.
This phrase is CANCER. This phrase is a large order of bile-dipped chicken tenders and a super-sized "extra chunky" vomit-shake.
I am fearful that very soon, someone directing this phrase in my direction will actually cause me to physically hurt them.
This deep hatred I feel towards this phrase seems so strange, but I just did a quick googling of the phrase, and it seems to cause others to become highly irritated as well...
Part of it seems to stem from the contents of the email which proceeds it, being filled with nonsense requests which seem to be asked by someone using their toes to enter the text (because their hands are obviously secured tightly in a straight jacket)...
Please do the needful *what*?
Seems like it is missing something...
"Needful THINGS", maybe?
"Needful people?"
"Please eat the needful beans."
That sounds better then just:
"Please do the needful."
That even sounds a bit naughty...if you are one of the needful...
Even THESE sound better: "Please transplant the needful spleen, doctor!"
"Please provide diamonds to the needful queen,my lord!" ...
"Please do the needful."
Ugh, this is going to be a long life...
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09:52 PM
PFF
System Bot
DtheC Member
Posts: 3395 From: Newton Iowa, USA Registered: Sep 2005
Nope, I've never heard "please do the needful" before... sounds like something from a Nigerian scam letter. I've seen all sorts of crap that makes me want to e-strangle someone - not just "your" (which REALLY pisses me off, especially in "professional" settings like eBay and even in middle of otherwise perfect text!), but one-sentence paragraphs (you know the one its like where the guy spits out his brain without any thought to punctuation at all its so annoying) and Those People that Are Too Enthusiastic About Their Capitalization... ugh.
But no "please do the needful"
------------------
'87 Fiero GT, Automatic, 153k miles, stock everything, just trying to make it all work again. :D
There are just so many things wrong with that I hardly know where to start. Most are really gross and offencive. Personally I'd find it an insult to hear it.
------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurasic Park)
It's not even the phrase itself, it's what comes BEFORE it.. The PDTN is just the cherry on the feces sundae.
It's not just a "poor english skills" type of a thing.
Is being used as a way to completely brush off responsibility...
Like sending someone "mla mla moogie moogie mlaaa! Please do the needful" = Well, I'm not actually telling you WHAT you need to do, or what needs to be done, but because I put PDTN at the end, please do it. after all, I DID type SOMETHING, can't you just do the rest?
It's akin to the "Didn't you get that memo"? Oh, you know the one we sent out last night with the twenty other project emails...
THAT'S what's the core of what is bugging me, not the phrase, but how it is being used now. Increasingly so.... It's the newest "PASS THE BUCKism".
NOT even so much by "foreign folk". I deal with internation clients on a daily basis, and I KNOW they speak differently then I do... *sighs* at least now I KNOW why I am so ticked off about it.
"It's the newest "PASS THE BUCKism"."
[This message has been edited by FieroRumor (edited 11-22-2006).]
I recieve e-mail at work from our partners in India. Usually they end their messages with the typical "Regards" or "sincerely". But recently I have recieved a few messages with the "please do the needful" line. I too thought it was just some funny lost in translation type of foreign speek and never gave it much more thought until reading this thread. Now that I think about it though, it does come across as a way of saying "you need to fix/do this cause I'm not going to". Hmmmm.
First time I've heard the phrase, and hopefully the last. Doesn't even make sense.
What I don't like is, it DOESN'T matter.
As I said before, it isn't so much the foreign aspect of it, it's the way people HERE are starting to use it. "Do these 5 projects, PDTN..." PDTN = find out who "owns' these 5 projects, their REAL names, and their contact info.
PDTN? FYUTA,YSA!
Gonna go to bed now...
(Sleep is needful.)
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12:21 AM
F-I-E-R-O Member
Posts: 8410 From: Endwell, NY Registered: Jan 2005
Send them back that wav clip of Samuel L Jackson saying "DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH $%#$%#@??"
Maybe they can get that subtle hint.
John Stricker
(PS: IF it's your boss, send it from a co-workers email account that you want to get fired, may as well kill two birds with one stone. )
quote
Originally posted by FieroRumor:
What I don't like is, it DOESN'T matter.
As I said before, it isn't so much the foreign aspect of it, it's the way people HERE are starting to use it. "Do these 5 projects, PDTN..." PDTN = find out who "owns' these 5 projects, their REAL names, and their contact info.
PDTN? FYUTA,YSA!
Gonna go to bed now...
(Sleep is needful.)
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12:34 AM
88GTNeverfinished Member
Posts: 1809 From: Pleasanton, CA Registered: Feb 2003
I'm not sure where you are getting it from but my company recently "offshored" our customer service to india.
Our new csr's learned pretty quick not to call me on the phone but I do get several emails a week from them using that very phrase. The really funny thing is they were allowed to choose american names to I guess convince our customers they were not indian.
So now in any given week I get emails from Jessica Parker, Pete Mitchell aka Maverick, Robert Kennedy and my personal favorite Elton David John, all asking me to do the needful, to which I reply please do the needful and stop emailing me.
Ah the joys of globalization.
[This message has been edited by 88GTNeverfinished (edited 11-23-2006).]
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12:37 AM
tutnkmn Member
Posts: 3426 From: York, England, U.K. Living in Ohio Registered: May 2006
I think it was warping time by using Boonie's box as a proxy though
I'm glad someone else noticed the time shifting. I was begining to think my mind was a little off. As far as Boonie's mind...........? I still think his computer was working faster than the speed of reality.
edit: I think Cliff P burped the system, I got a system status page, and when I came back the thread had dissapeared except for the original post. Boonie has powers unknown to mortal humans, but the situation was amusing.
[This message has been edited by DtheC (edited 11-23-2006).]
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08:05 AM
tutnkmn Member
Posts: 3426 From: York, England, U.K. Living in Ohio Registered: May 2006
I'm glad someone else noticed the time shifting. I was begining to think my mind was a little off. As far as Boonie's mind...........? I still think his computer was working faster than the speed of reality.
edit: I think Cliff P burped the system, I got a system status page, and when I came back the thread had dissapeared except for the original post. Boonie has powers unknown to mortal humans, but the situation was amusing.
I just discovered the fault. It seems my magnificent time ship was hacked. The Gallifreyan operating system was cracked by a computer with an IP address somewhere in Alaska. In the code were many references to "the needful warping of time on Pennocks forum." Temporal energy flow from the time rotor was directed to this Alaskan computer and redistrubuted to a server somewhere in the Netherlands. Hmm, who could have done this?
[This message has been edited by tutnkmn (edited 11-23-2006).]
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08:20 AM
dguy Member
Posts: 2416 From: Beckwith Township, ON, Canada Registered: Jan 2003
There are just so many things wrong with that I hardly know where to start. Most are really gross and offencive. Personally I'd find it an insult to hear it.
I think my mind went in the same direction as theogre's. Yuck.
Haven't heard that one over here yet; might be in the wrong type of office for that sort of jargon to take hold though. On a dubious high note however, I think I've finally heard a buzzphrase which exceeds the distastefulness of "do you have the bandwidth to...".
)
No more time warping.
Whatever it is, I was beter off never hearing it mentioned.
