Teamwork is great. You can utilise other peoples skills, bounce ideas off each other and learn new things. What isn’t great is when you’re collaborating with a colleague and instead of answering your question you get radio silence or the answer to a completely different question. The question is then how do you circumvent this frustrating outcome? Studies have shown that you need to become an ‘active emailer’ rather than a passive one. These 4 phrases should help you get the information you need without coming across as a passive-aggressive jerk.

“Need clarification by [time]”

The word ‘urgent’ is effectively meaningless, as is the priority warnings on our email system – people just ignore them. However deadlines? Co-workers LOVE deadlines. By giving your colleagues a rough estimate of when you need something by allows them to schedule it into their day, as well as adding a sense of urgency without using the word ‘urgent’.

“Would it be better to give you a call?”

Thanks to email, we don’t have to talk to anyone anymore. However, suggesting a call warrants a response because of the inconvenience of actually holding a conversation. This one can be tricky as sometimes colleagues will call your bluff and you end up more confused than ever, however usually they will respond.

“Are you able to view the attachment?”

This is basically a nice way of asking “WHY HAVEN’T YOU RESPONDED YET?” but without the aggression that comes from all caps sentences. This is the most passive-aggressive email phase, but simultaneously the most effective.

“Is this done?”

This can sound rude but sometimes you need to know. Emails are quite blunt by nature, so hopefully you’re colleague will see the best in you and assume you phrased it this way because you’re stressed/busy. If you’re not sure you want to go the whole way with this one, you can try variations “How are you going with this?”, “Do you need any clarification” or “When can I expect this?” Just note that these questions don’t always provide the answer you want.