The company that/which/who

Question

My understanding is that "who" is only used to address people. However, i read an article that claimed if we are referring to the organization as a group of people , we can use "who." Please provide your feedback on the examples below.

1. The customer will send their bills to the company who will then defer them to the insurance company.

2. The customer will send their bills to the company which will then defer them to the insurance.

I don't think "that" can be used in the context noted above.

3. I had an interview with a company, which did not offer much incentives.

4. I had an interview with a company that did not offer much incentives.

Thanks!

Answer 1

It is not uncommon to use who after either a creature, an alien. a ghost or a group (company) when any of these is invested with a personality. It's more a question of what's appropriate than what's correct.

Whether who "fits" will depend largely on the genre and the context. In your example, who is possible although that is preferable.

But it would not be unusual to see a sentence starting: Microsoft, who yesterday declared x, now admit that..... or Facebook, who used to allow x, are now deleting such posts.

Examples 3 and 4 are correct. They mean different things.

Example 3 tells you that the company with which you had an interview, did not offer many incentives. (NOT much incentives). The subordinate clause here is additional information rather than defining information.

Example 4 defines the company with which you had an interview as the one that did not offer many incentives as opposed to any other company. As you illustrated, no comma and the relative pronoun that.

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