any southerners here? (from usa)

Here in NY we have no such problems. Here, we address everyone by their proper title- moron.

Isn't Florida USA's dick?

I call officers and public servants Sir/Ma'am (never encountered a female cop, don't really know what I'd say)..don't really call anyone Mr..I use Ma'am a lot.. to anyone but a kid, they'd be little missy or something, female respect is as Southern as it gets. I wouldn't use any formalities with coworkers but I guess it depends where you're working really. People won't really mind if you don't do any of it, I don't know anyone that looks down on others for not doing it...if you didn't grow up with it you just didn't grow up with it, no need to force-assimilate.

Weird, I call my department director by his first name at work, and did at my last position too. Seems odd to me that you'd call co workers Mr. (Whatever) or Miss (Whos-it) and sadly I Live in Florida

I know many younger (and by this I mean even 40ish) women really hate Ma'am, and Miss can be a trap too. I've always hated Ms it just sounds weird.

Sorry I'm not much help, but even in most cases of irate citizens I usually find out their name and call them by that. Shrug

As a side note I am always uncomfortable being called "Sir" even if it's by a teenager. I know, this probably wasn't much help.

I'm a southerner (NZ)

There used to be a thing called etiquette back in the day, but most people don't know what that means anymore.

It is a remnant from times where.
"Have a nice evening ma'am" was the right way to say goodbye to women.

It is however not used often by the younger population. As all languages evolve so will the way we address people.

Like in my language since I was taught this way I still say: "De må have en god dag." Where most young people say "Du må have en god dag." (Both sentences mean: "Have a nice day" to a singular person)
The difference here is "De" which implies respect for the person who you do not know (or you do know), and back then "Du" was used for someone in your family or in disrespect to someone you don't know. Though "De" was still used to those in the family you had respect for. The words both meant the same but the difference was in the context, it was used.

Now its normal for people to say "Du" to everyone.

Tennessee resident here. It's hardly used around here, but my parents tried to enforce it for a bit. If someone tells you to call them something else just use that. If not, my opinion is call them Mr./Mrs./Ms. (last name). Especially with men's names. Mr. Skywalker sounds better than Mr. Luke. Women's names don't sound as weird and "Miss" and "Misses" are used interchangeably around here. With sir or ma'am, take a guess. They will tell you if you're wrong ;) or ask.

I'm from Memphis/Mississippi, but I've actually lived the past decade+ in Asia. The politeness still sticks with me here, even calling those who many locals might be more gruff with due to lower social substrata (like maids/taxi drivers/pedicab drivers) the equivalents of "sir" or "ma'am." It's just deferential, but especially so with older people and business associates.

Texan here, it's weird to me that this would be something specific to the south but I guess it makes sense lol. It's how you refer to people in formal settings, sir or ma'am can either be used to come off as professional or just as a sign of respect. Most often it's used when speaking the language of customer service but depending on how you were raised you'd use it talking to your parents and any authority figures basically. It's "proper".

Mr., Ms., and Mrs. are used to speak to someone professionally followed by their last name that either has some kind of social status, you don't know them on a first name basis, or in some cases used similar to sir or ma'am. A school teacher (who isn't a professor), somebody giving a job interview, maybe a friend's parents, and so on. I wouldn't just go about calling everybody mister though, you'd get some strange looks. You use Ms. to refer to an unmarried woman, and Mrs. (missus) to refer to someone who is married.

Honestly, using them might get you brownie points in a job interview or when introducing yourself to somebodies parents but it's not expected. Just social cues from the olden days :P

lol. I couldn't help but get a chuckle out of this post. I'm from up north myself and moved down to Florida and have been here awhile. When I talk to someone I don't know I normally refer to younger females as miss and older females as Ma'am and males as sir. Some look at it as a form of respect.

I've seen co-worker refer to each other this was as well in various places of employment. For me if I was at your work place I would probably use Miss, Ma'am and sir till I've gotten to know the person at least a little bit.

I will say up north where I'm from I rarely heard people talk like this, that's not to say it doesn't happen I just didn't hear it much at all.