When and to whom should I use the expression ご苦労様 (gokurousama)?

Question

In what context and relationship wise to who can I safely say ご苦労様 (gokurousama)?

I often defer to using otsukaresama since I'm not sure if I'm talking down to someone by saying gokurousama. Please provide some example contexts where it would be appropriate. Thanks.

Answer 1

AFAIK, it means more or less the same thing as お疲れ様 (おつかれさま). But the nuance is to whom you say it. お疲れ様 is used for colleagues or superiours ("highers"), ご苦労様 I believe is only used from superiours to subordinates ("highers" to "lowers"). So you'd probably only say it if you have people "working" under you, such as direct subordinates at a job, if you're the leader of some type of group project, etc.

So you're probably safe most of the time to defer to お疲れ様 unless there's a very clear pecking-order of which you're at the top.