"There are times when I want to use Facebook for work, and therefore don't wish to chat with family, and other times, want to chat family and hide from work. Can I hide from specific people, on facebook chat?"

Everybody's got someone that they just don't want to talk to; the worse scenario is when friends fall out and/or chat is being used inappropriately (e.g. bullying)—there is a way to sign on without them seeing you.

A solution to this problem is to create a new List for the friends you want to hide from, and then set that list to offline in Facebook chat.

To do this...

  • click on Friends on the left-hand menu;

     
  • click on the Create a List button

     
  • give the list a name—I chose "HideFrom" which seems logical

     
  • Next, add those friends you wish to hide from to the list by clicking on them in turn...

     
  • Then click the "Create List" button

     
  • Open the Facebook Chat screen, and click the little green toggle switch...

    You are now signed out as far as those people are concerned. 
With careful planning Facebook users can control who can see them on Facebook chat.