It’s easy to overdo, but there’s still a ways to slide up the spectrum before it comes off that way. You can be like “Bob, what do you think?”, instead of “Hey, what do you think” plus looking at Bob intently. Also works okay while delivering a compliment—“Bob, you’re hilarious!”.
True enough. Most of the incidents I’m thinking of involved using the person’s name as an aside — “Well, what I’d do, Bob, is analyze the process … you see, Bob, we can leverage the underlying synergies and push the envelope on the business plan, Bob …”
Yes. I would add greetings and farewells to the class of social contexts in which addressing someone by his or her name is desirable. ‘Hi, Bob’ and ‘Bye, Tina’ are almost always preferable to ‘Hi’ and ‘Bye’, respectively.
Probably the optimal place to use someone’s name is in close proximity to the nicest thing you’re going to say in the conversation. This may train them to feel good when you say their name, at which point you probably start saying it at the start of the conversation too, to put things on a good footing.
It’s easy to overdo, but there’s still a ways to slide up the spectrum before it comes off that way. You can be like “Bob, what do you think?”, instead of “Hey, what do you think” plus looking at Bob intently. Also works okay while delivering a compliment—“Bob, you’re hilarious!”.
True enough. Most of the incidents I’m thinking of involved using the person’s name as an aside — “Well, what I’d do, Bob, is analyze the process … you see, Bob, we can leverage the underlying synergies and push the envelope on the business plan, Bob …”
Yes. I would add greetings and farewells to the class of social contexts in which addressing someone by his or her name is desirable. ‘Hi, Bob’ and ‘Bye, Tina’ are almost always preferable to ‘Hi’ and ‘Bye’, respectively.
Probably the optimal place to use someone’s name is in close proximity to the nicest thing you’re going to say in the conversation. This may train them to feel good when you say their name, at which point you probably start saying it at the start of the conversation too, to put things on a good footing.