It is now one week since you have sent your request to your colleagues (see this related post), and you still have not heard back from them. The deadline for the document is, however, fast approaching. You need to politely remind them to revise the document and send it back to you soon.

Since I am good friends with Julia and Markus, it is relatively safe to be direct and just point out the situation, with “leider” softening the tone somewhat.

This is to allow the possibilities that they simply missed the email by accident. Doing so help portray my follow-up as a non-threatening check that they did receive my email, rather than an accusation of them delaying their reply.

The usual Konjunktiv and ‘bitte’ are used to keep things polite, and it is often good to reiterate to others what exactly they should do – done here by “wie besprochen” (as discussed previously).

Notice the difference compared to the first scenario with close colleagues, where I was more direct in stating that I did not receive a reply after a week. Here, I am merely asking whether the boss had a chance to look at the document, implying I understand he is busy and am not blaming him of anything.

Here, it is one level up in politeness in my request. In fact, I am not requesting my boss to answer me. Rather, I only express that I would be happy if there would be an answer. Of course, my boss is smart enough to understand the underlying message. And as usual, I give the reasons behind the urgency.

Apart from the “Konjuntiv” and bitte, the formulation with “falls”, together with the word “benötigen” instead of, for example, “brauchen”, makes the sentence a lot more formal – fit for the boss. I also make it sound like the option of him needing more time as one of the valid choices, and simply state what I would do to accommodate this choice.