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

It is used very widely still in the legal sector

Recently started a new job. I asked colleague why they all email 'dear sirs' because I didn't realise that was still a thing!

She didn't know why - It's just something that's always been done and it's naturally become a default thing to do.

I write sir / madam.

Do you work in law? Dear Sirs is standard and gender neutral in legal correspondence and is often used in other correspondence by lawyers seemingly out of habit. There may be other professions with similar conventions.

just shows how archaic and enmired in sexism the legal world can be

I would let him know you’d prefer he uses a less sexist form of address.

Dear Sirs is standard and gender neutral in legal correspondence

NO. It is not 'gender neutral'. It is sexist and does not acknowledge that women are a thing.

I’d find it very hard to be offended. To whom it may concern comes across as rude to me.

I haven't been at the firm too long but the term was banned in my last firm so I guess that may have made it stand out more to me.

How can it be “gender neutral” though Regina? Is “dear ladies” gender neutral as well?

I see someone said its standard use. Why risk alienating some women for the sake of tradition? Using another form of address will make absolutely no difference whatsoever.

I asked male friend what he would think - he’d assume the sender was behind the times.

I work in a very traditional and bureaucratic place

We would use Dear Sir/Madam if necessary. Never Dear Sirs

Yep @koshkatt every time I read it there’s a subtext of “remember how great it was when it was just us men in the workplace”. It’s grinding.

Amazed that some women think that this is ok. Try sending a 'Dear Madams' email to a load of men and see if they think that it is 'gender neutral'.

They will be outraged to a man.

I believe that people who think it's fine to assume everyone in a workplace is male, shouldn't be writing business emails. Of course it's fucking sexist.

Deary me.

It's not really acceptable but it is how a lot of the old school still do it, including my manager

It’s not standard in all legal correspondence. I noticed letters to my company (in a legal dispute) changed from Dear Sirs to Dear Sir/Madam, when opposing side realised I was on board and clearly not a male.

Dear Sirs is not gender neutral. Unless you also believe Dear Madams is the same and also gender neutral.

Really, both Sir and Madam should become obsolete and a gender-neutral salutation should be devised— How about…

Dear Whom?
Dear Human?
Dear Concerned Party?

More importantly, Mr, Mrs, Ms, Miss should all become obsolete. This is far more sexist in my opinion. Why should women be addressed according to their marital status?

My old manager used to make sure each and every email sent to "Sirs" was replied to by a woman.

Mind you, we had a female interviewee who was told it was the correct thing to do, and who lacked the knowledge or experience to overrule received wisdom.

I'm also a lawyer and have never used or received correspondence to 'Sirs'. 'Sir/Madam is quite functional.
In fact at 1990s law school we were specifically advised the archaic form was unacceptable.

My daughter is a trainee lawyer and says this is very common in law firms, her company does it, and it’s one of the huge ones.

Yabu its standard use when writing to generic emails where the gender of the receiver is unknown

welcome to the 21st century, you're not too far behind in your thinking skills regarding equality so you might be able to catch up. There is no GOOD reason to assume a recipient is male.

I find it quite rude in this modern day, to me it implies that the sender doesn’t value a woman to be doing the job only men.
My team is entirely female but some clients still address their emails “Dear Sirs” when we have been conversing for months.

Interesting responses. I have always been taught that if you do not know the person you are writing to, it is Dear Sir with Yours faithfully. If you know the person, it is Dear Mrs Smith with Yours sincerely.

I have always been told that it does not relate to a man, but was the correct way to address a company. I have never been offended by receiving a letter address to Dear Sir if the sender did not know my name. I have, however, been offended by a letter addressed to "To whom it may concern" and "Mr/Mrs"

So - I am a dinosaur. Who knew ...