When an E-4 calls me "hey" or "hey man" knowing that I am an officer, should I bother to correct him?

Do the right thing, even when nobody is watching

I feel like part of the story is missing here. My initial reaction is that you should mention it to him. However, I'm curious are these social, or religious settings? are you in uniform? I had officers in my church when I was in, they insisted I call them by the first name when in church or at a church function. If I would see them on base or in uniform then I spoke to them with military respect.

LT,
I’m going to try to say this without being insulting. If you need to be told that you need to enforce military standards on your subordinates maybe the military is not for you. As a Lance Corporal in the Marines, I was never allowed to call a corporal, sergeant, or above “man”, let alone a commissioned officer. When I was a chief warrant officer I would never allow any behavior like that, wether it was directed at me, my staff NCOs or NCOs.

Many of us that are recently retired see this as a major problem. Discipline is deteriorating at an alarming rate. Congress and the executive branches treat the armed forces as a test bed for woke BS and social programs. The military exists for one purpose: win wars. Anything else is a dereliction of our duty to our country. The disrespect young service members show toward seniors feeds into the dysfunction being forced onto the armed services. Don’t allow this ever, be the officer you were selected to be and discipline soldiers who are out of line. Force the SNCOs and officers around you to do the same. Be the generation that decides it is time to return to the core fundamentals that make our forces feared worldwide, which has rapidly deteriorated this year.

I wish you the best in your career. Don’t take sh$t from anyone, stand up for what you believe.

You should always make the correction in a non demeaning manner

Yes Period. End of Sentence.

A soldier is a soldier 24/7 and Army values need to be lived at all times. If an E4 does not respect an officer he still is required to show respect to higher rank. maybe you should have a talk with the First Sergeant and ask him how he would handle being addressed as "Hey, man" from an E4.
SGM (ret) Francis J Brzyski
1st Cavalry, III Corps, Vietnam

I’m surprised at the question. OF COURSE you correct that individual and bring him to attention while you are doing it!

Sir, you have to correct them because they could be testing you. They are not your equal in rank. You are the superior and deserve that respect. You earned it.

Really, Jeff ? "Hey man ?" Is the "work" you're describing active duty status, reserve unit, or what ? I'm former enlisted (OCS grad) and was taught as a "slick-sleeve" private to respect everyone. Quickly learned the ranking system, meaning DON'T salute SGTs. So, if he's an E4 and knows you're an officer, he's in that zone of "familiarization breeds contempt". If you continue to let his behavior go, in my opinion, both of you are in the wrong. Some of the guys (junior enlisted) in my tight-knit Armor unit once asked me what my first name was...ans: LT. They then pressed for a nickname...ans: Sir.

HELL YES...Don't let that slide into a slippery slope.