>>I got a note from our HR department about my compensation. It's printed both in English and French - only a paragraph in each case. In English, it started with 'Alan Popow'. In French (the bottom half of the page), it started 'Monsieur ou Madame'.
>
>No "Dear Mr." or "Dear Ms."? Then I would consider it as inpolite.

I'm just as happy that nobody in our HR department thinks of me as 'Dear'. ;)