What an interesting question! As others have said, it's definitely a 'softening' of a request to make it more polite ('Go home' vs 'Would it be possible for yo

What an interesting question! As others have said, it's definitely a 'softening' of a request to make it more polite ('Go home' vs 'Would it be possible for you to go home?'). But I think there are some status games going on here, too. A subordinate would never use that phrasing with a superior. While the phrase uses conditional language to 'soften' the request, it's also an imperative (an order) that's made to look like a request. Try to imagine the boss saying this. How would they have said it - with an upward inflection at the end, as in a question like this one? Definitely not! The phrase would definitely end on a downward inflection, as in an order like 'Please go home'. It's a curious turn of phrase that I'd suggest is particular to managers, parents, and other authority figures that need to maintain a veneer of respect for their subordinates. It also strikes me as uniquely American; I couldn't imagine a Brit or an Australian saying something like this (but happy to be corrected).