Word for mildly and politely telling someone what to do

Question

I'm looking for a word or phrase somewhere between telling and asking someone to do something.
Example 1: xyz clean up your workspace when done
Example 2: I needed to xyz the programmer to modify the program.

Answer 1

English is absolutely full of alternatives for polite demands! English seems to be to be one of the most understated languages whereby a polite request is in fact a demand in disguise.

Example 1

• I would really appreciate your cleaning your workspace
• I would be grateful if you could clean your workspace when you are finished
• We should all clean our workspaces at the end of the day
• It is good practice to clean your workspace when complete
• It would please me greatly if you could clean your workspace when your task is complete
• Would you mind awfully, cleaning up your workspace? (and the meaning of "awfully" in this case is "very", as in would you mind a lot)

Example 2

• Do you think it would be a good idea to modify the program to do xyz?
• Could you please modify the program as per the jira task?
• I would be grateful if you could modify the program by end of day tomorrow
• Do you need any help in modifying the program per the user feedback?
• When do you think the xyz modification will be complete?
• Please could you raise the xyz modification to the top of your priority list
• The xyz change to the program is important, please you could you work on it as a priority?