Shouldn't お疲れ様でございます be お疲れ様でいらっしゃいます？


When addressing a superior, I've often heard people saying お疲れ様でございます, but
でございます is a 謙譲語 form. Since they are talking about how hard their superior
worked, shouldn't the phrase be transformed to 尊敬語, ie お疲れ様でいらっしゃいます.




ございます is not a 謙譲語 by itself. It's just a 丁寧語, something more politer than
です/ます. Sometimes (で)いらっしゃいます is better as a 尊敬語 word, but I have never heard
お疲れ様でいらっしゃいます, presumably because お疲れ itself is not a human being.
こちらは先生でいらっしゃいます is fine, but こちらは先生のお財布でいらっしゃいます sounds funny.

By the way, I feel お疲れ様でございます is already uncommon, and no one around me
actually use it. But this should depend on where you work at.

