How to Email a Person Whose Name You Don’t Know

Sometimes, we have to write emails to people who we don’t know. You might be applying for a job. You might be writing a complaint to your cable company or challenging your electric bill. You might be trying to find out who at an organization is in charge of a particular task or decision.

Whatever the case, how are we supposed to address a person whose name is unknown?

Once upon a time, people used the phrase “To Whom It May Concern.” This was a polite way to begin a letter to a person whose name you didn’t have and couldn’t find out. People were trying to be nice. And professional.

That time has passed.

To be clear, do *not* use the phrase “To Whom It May Concern” unless you want the tone of your message to be I do not give a flying fork who reads this message.

I would also caution against using “Dear Sir/Madam,” which was also standard formal in the not-so-distant past. This greeting was slightly more specific than “To Whom It May Concern” but is also too formal and stiff for our current workplaces, not to mention the gender binary.

What changed from the days of these formal, impersonal greetings to today is that we now have the tools and access to be able to find just about any person we want. Companies have directories of employees…