Dear Sirs

[Suzanne12]

Is this an acceptable way to start an email that will be received by either a man or a woman? Would you say something if a colleague used this term to send an email to a generic inbox?

Yabu - it's fine
Yanbu - it's not acceptable anymore

I’ve never seen/heard this and, if it’s true (which I doubt), anyone doing this is incredibly stupid.

1. Please don’t call me a liar.

1. I didn’t mention a single word in my post about them being LEGAL letters. My industry - obviously - has no involvement in the law industry.

1. I’ve personally witnessed this. Get fucked if you’re so narrow minded you can’t imagine any industry not operating the exact same way yours does.

1. Hope you weren’t one of the people whose job application was torn up!

And no, it isn’t “incredibly stupid” to decline to work with or entertain job applications from people who show a fundamental inability to grasp the culture and social norms of the industry they are seeking work in.

What a stupid comment.

I was taught Sir or Madam at school in the 80s/90s. Seems so odd to use Sirs.