This is too good to pass up sharing: At my new job, we sit in an open floor plan with head-height walls behind bench-like workspaces. Since we don't all sit in offices, the preferred mode of privacy is the use of headphones.

Today, the Director of Engineering walked through my neighborhood looking for someone. He said something that I couldn't hear through headphones, so I pulled mine off—as did, apparently, most everyone else nearby. Chuckling, he announced he'd been talking to himself (a frequent occurrence) but that he appreciated the headphones doffed in his honor.

Before striding off, he said, "It's like a modern kind of salute, shows respect, I like it."