What in the heck does “please do the needful mean”? Half of the tickets I receive from our helpdesk in India say this in them? These guy’s are killing me, “the system has been rebooted thrice times”!
I have no idea what it means but we have an Indian arm of our operation and we were talking last week about how they were killing us with the same type of thing.
us: "Is Pranay available?
them: “No, he has absconded.”
He left the company.
Here is an older thread about it:
It basically means, “Please take care of this as appropriate.”
It does seem to be an Indian thing - I get it a lot from that group at work.
Regards,
Shodan
I would say it’s now mostly an Indian thing, but clearly derives from formal archaic British letter writing style. I still occasionally see the expression in letters from English insurers, lawyers and consultants, particularly in the context of accounts ie “I enclose an account addressed to you from so-and-so, please do the needful.”
It is the English translation of “Kemosabe.” Ah, those Indians.
The irony of someone mocking someone else for their use of language while using the phrase “these guy’s are killing me” is rather… well, ironic.
It may be archaic, but surely the meaning is pretty obvious? Please do whatever is necessary. Don’t see what all the confusion is all about. And yes, it’s mostly an Indian thing but it derives from older English usage of the phrase, specially in a formal context.
Shagnasty: “abscond” is a perfectly legitimate word, although clearly not quite appropriate in this context - unless he ran away and is hiding. 
Do you work with me?
Actually, the tickets I get say ‘Please to be doing the needful’.
I’m actually having more problems with some of our francophone techs - the indian techs are at least writing things down the way they would say them, but the french guys are writing down complete gibberish.
Please tell me you aren’t systems analysts…
Why would that be a problem? Clearly I’m missing something here…
I actually am a systems analyst and I co-manage a group of 40 Indian employees. They are quite accomplished with weird English constructions but the real problem occurs when English constructions mean one thing to them and another to us. It happens on a daily basis. They aren’t stupid but there have been many phone calls that sounded like some perverted joke. We would repeat what needed to be done after a conference call and they would repeat back something similar but completely unrelated. I have seen meltdowns after this went back and forth several times and it isn’t a pretty thing.
It isn’t… the wifey is one too and this thread is basically a synopsis of our conversations about her job.
Not to mention including the word “mean” inside the quotes.
In our office the phrase “do the needful” has become so popular that we now use it for any task including going to the bathroom.
after reading the thread, it actually starts to sound useful. It means do whatever is appropriate and needed. A short phrase and to the point. I predict a new fad!
Ahh, the Indian interpretation of English. Always a welcomed surprise.
“Please act and do the needful” was a common ending to many of the production email responses I used to get from Pune.
The intent is clear enough, and I can’t see how any American should be rightfully “baffled”. They’re saying “do what needs to be done”.
In my situation particularly, the phrase takes on a more ironic meaning.
Our manufacturer in Pune received orders from us, as most manufacturers do. However, from time to time, we would have to call and check on orders that were late. On several occasions, we inquired about previous orders and were told that the manufacturing plant “did not believe the order placed”.
Yes.
The plant got the order, did not believe how much we wanted, and did nothing. Nothing.
What can you say to that? Please make what we order? Again?
No, they are just being (arguably overly) succinct. What they meant was that the plant did not believe [think, accept] that you had placed the order.
Well, I didn’t want to appear *too *snarky, you know. That’s why I didn’t point out that the second sentence of the OP isn’t a question, and shouldn’t end with a question mark.
Whereas
is, of course.
grins
Actually, I think you’ll find that it is. I’m asking if the OP finds it difficult to decipher the given sentence, in much the same vein as “Surely you don’t think we should go this way?” Perhaps it’s used more in the UK (a little searching on the net brings up several sites with this usage, most of them from the UK) but it’s not a typo, as you seem to be suggesting.