Office English / Chasing people

What happens when you ask someone to do something at work and they haven't done it?

Voicenote clipsI feel OK about it. And I always start really polite. But, obviously, if someone doesn't reply and then you need it and you have to chase them again and again.

So when I have to chase people up at work I don't mind because generally it's just something they've forgotten about or they've missed the email. But yeah it can get a bit awkward if you have to do it over and over again and you're not sure why.

Today on Office English we're talking about how to remind people to do something in a polite and professional way.

Hello. Welcome to Office English from BBC Learning English. I'm Pippa.

And I'm Phil. And this is your podcast guide to the language of the world of work.

Today we're talking about how to remind somebody to do something if they haven't responded to you, or how to chase people up at work.

Yep, as we heard at the start of the programme, we spend a lot of time and energy at work reminding other people to do things. So, Pippa, what do we mean, when we say we need to chase people up at work.

Yeah, so we don't literally mean to chase people. We just mean to go back to them on email or speak to them again to ask them one more time 'can you please do this thing' or 'can you reply to me?' or send whatever you've asked them to do. So it's basically reminding somebody to do something. We use the phrase chase people up.

Actually, when you're chasing people up it can be quite important to think about who you're chasing up because we'd probably chase different people in different ways.