I believe this is limited to the chat window because everything happens through dialog. I don't think it's anything over which we have control, short of completely reworking how one interacts with crafting stations.
What you can do, however, is right-click on the chat window border (top of the window) and select "Exclude normal chat" or something like that. Then you'll only miss people standing next to you talking. Tells will show up very obviously.
When done, just include normal chat for that window again and you're all set.