Notice that in the example, you give your colleague a reason for the delay. Needing to wait can feel inconvenient for the person who wants your attention. Giving someone a reason for inconveniencing them is a way to “soften the blow” in polite English.

不知道大家注意到了沒有，在例句中，除了稍等一下之外你還給了你的同事一個稍等的原因。需要等待的人會因為你讓他等一下而感到不方便。所以，在禮貌的英語中，給某人一個不方便的理由是一種減輕沖擊的方式。

Of course, in face-to-face situations the other person will often be able to see why you need a little bit of time, so you don t have to give the reason. Your friendly tone of voice and body language will be polite enough.

當然，在面對面的情況下，對方通常會明白為什么你需要一點時間，所以你不必給出理由。你友好的語氣和肢體語言就足夠有禮貌了。

However, if you are using these phrases on the phone, where the other person can't see what you re doing, it s more important to give a reason for the inconvenience. 

For example

但是，如果你在電話里這么說，而對方卻不知道你在做什么，那么給對方一個不方便的理由就更重要了。

例如

- Hey, could we meet up this week to go over the Henderson report?

嘿，我們這周能不能見面看看亨德森報告？

- Sure! Just a sec, let me pull up my calendar.

當然！等一下，讓我打開日程表看一下。