What is an appropriate response to お疲れ様です【おつかれさまです】 in non-work situations?

Question

Often times at the gym, when I'm on my way out, covered in sweat, one of the staff will say お疲れ様です{おつかれさまです}("you've worked hard"...?).

Usually at work situations, I've often found that saying some variant of お疲れ{おつかれ} back makes sense, because we're usually in the same situation or we're finishing at the same time.

However, in this case, they're working and I'm a customer, so I'm never quite sure how to respond. Saying some variant of お疲れ back to them doesn't seem right, as they are still working.

I feel a little weird saying ありがとう (thanks) or something like that, because it seems to be acknowledging my own efforts ("why yes, I have worked hard!"), which doesn't seem quite right.

What would be the right response?

Answer 1

お疲れ様です has many meanings depending on the context and your divided feelings, I think, reflect Japanese people's own different usages. It is simultaneously a greeting and an acknowledgement of having put in hard work and being in a state of tiredness.

At work, お疲れ様です acknowledges each other's hard work and responding usually suggests "it's nothing, you've also worked hard." At your gym, お疲れ様です is more literally like "You must be tired," but is essentially just a greeting, like "How are you?" in English.

The correct response should be 「どうも」would suggest "Thank you for your thoughtfulness," rather than "I have worked hard!"

Answer 2

Maybe 「そちらこそ」(you too)?

Or just plain 「どうも」.

Answer 3

At the bouldering gym i go to, when people leave they say otsukare-samadesu to which everyone replies otsukare-sama desu.

which is weird and totally feels like work.

though Axio7s response works as well.

Answer 4

If you don't feel like saying something special you could just nod to him/her. They say that to everyone and don't usually expect any answer at all.

Answer 5

If you leave but they're still working, wouldn't "(お先に)失礼します" be appropriate? If it's quite informal, maybe you can just say something like "ああ。それでは、また明日！"