Hearing いらっしゃいませ when leaving the building. Why?

Question

Whenever I leave my office building for lunch a guard in charge greets me (everyone) with a:

お疲れさまです。いらっしゃいませ。

Edit: This is a recording of what I heard. Based on comments I received under this question and what I set my ears to hear, I do hear either いらっしゃいませ or いってらっしゃいませ when playing back.

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Original question:

I am used to hearing the phrase いらっしゃいませ for "welcome" (explained to come from 居る "be" or or 来る "come"), but in this case I am leaving, it's not my destination and I won't spend more than a second hanging around the guard.

Why isn't it odd? If it's indeed いらっしゃいませ what image should I create in my mind when told so? Me coming to the guard's place, me leaving the building, me being, me leaving and coming back?

Answer 1

いらっしゃいませ is one of those words that can mean its own opposite -- at least, from an English speaker's perspective. It's the imperative or command form of a super-polite 敬語【けいご】 word that can mean: to go, to come, or simply to be.

That said, given it's etymological origins in the word 入る【いる】, and the way the term is often used by shopkeepers to mean come on in, your guess at come back [into the building] is probably right.

UPDATE

There's some interesting commentary by native speakers under the question post, pointing to a greater likelihood that the いらっしゃいませ heard by the asker is instead a slurred or informally contracted 行ってらっしゃいませ. This would seem to better fit the stated situations in which the asker has heard the phrase.