Is the phrase "please kindly" redundant?

Solution 1:

Strictly speaking, "please" and "kindly" do serve separate purposes. I can demand that you kindly do a certain task:

Kindly apologize to your mother

The intent is to dictate how you should apologize. Prepending "please" is me politely asking you to do something:

Please apologize to your mother

Combining them signifies that I am being polite and you should be polite:

Please kindly apologize to your mother

In the context of office chatter, I would interpret the original intent of the phrase to mean, "I am asking nicely; don't give me attitude." As it is now bordering on a cliché, I highly doubt anyone is putting much thought into the phrase or its meaning and they are simply being polite.

Solution 2:

Both the adverbs are used in polite requests, and one of the meanings of kindly is please.

In a sentence like "please kindly send me a copy of your paperwork," please and kindly are redundant.

In a sentence like "will you kindly sign the enclosed copy of this letter," kindly is often used ironically.

Solution 3:

Yes, they are redundant, as in this context, they mean essentially the same thing.