Yes, you can hover your mouse over the contact in the list to see their full name and status, but I hate having to do that to see their actual status all the time and if my idea was implemented you wouldnt even have to move the mouse to see their actual status.
Here's an idea that Sunshine came up with: placing the status tag anywhere in the custom name
.
For example: <Custom Name> <Status Tag> - (!N)
Jack (Homework) - Jack and Jill went up the hill
<Sunshine> that way you can place the tag whereever you want it