My point was his use of the phrase "Do you recall ....".
Works better than "What did you do with the stuff I sent you? Throw it away?".
Frank's point about "do you recall" is that it's a nice way of prompting a senior to answer a potentially personal question. They want to prove to you that they can remember things.
"Do you recall the company you have that with?"
"Do you recall..." is power tool. Works in all settings.