The Diminutive

A colleague just asked me what the diminutive form of my name is. I told her, and told her I've been wondering why everybody uses diminutives around here. At exactly that moment another colleague came in a called her by her diminutive, we burst out laughing, and the new colleague explained why: when we come to ask you for something and see you're wicked busy, we try to make it seem like we love you a lot so that you'll do us the favor right away; we don't love you anymore as soon as we walk out the door, of course, but we really want this favor.