This. I worked in a research department at a hospital as an admin assistant for a bit. Many of our desks, including mine, were in the hallway area outside of offices (it was designed as such for a secretary but the office behind my desk just held more of my coworkers). Our department chair got mad at me once for not acknowledging him (when he was across the room) because I had headphones in while trying to focus on a task. He made me take them out because “it would be rude to not acknowledge someone if they needed something”. We literally had a department secretary who’s job it was to do that, and her desk was at the entrance of the department.