NPCs should always be treated in the same way a PC is treated. Walking up to an NPC and saying 'any jobs?' is not acceptable. I don't walk into a store, bar, clinic, whatever and just say the keywords I need to say in order to be issued a job.
This is a role playing game people -- that means you are expected to role play. Unless your character doesn't speak well, and is using broken English, you have no excuse to be just saying keywords. That is lazy and there will be IC consequences for failing to RP.
Even when no one is looking (or you believe no one is looking), you are still expected to RP your character and treat other characters (be is NPC or PC) as people.
Thanks!
Slither