Politeness is the key to positive workplaces

My daughter uses virtual assistants to help her with homework. Several times a week she can be heard shouting trivia questions into her device: “Hey Siri, spell onomatopoeia!” or “Hey Siri, what was the War of the Roses?”. I guess virtual assistants are pretty handy where homework is concerned.

But it is in our youth when many of our key norms in life are learned, and although these questions seem quite normal when speaking to a device, what would they sound like if asked of a human being? What’s the difference between “Spell onomatopoeia!” and “Please…