Leaving the Office for the Day（お先に vs お疲れ様vs ありがとう）


My workplace has guards that work at our main door checking IDs and the like.
In the morning we exchange cheerful おはようございますs. But I'm not sure what evening
parting to use.

お先に失礼します seems out of place to me, but I can't put my finger on why. Is
お疲れ様でした appropriate outside of one's work group (and given the guards will
likely be working several more hours)? Would a simple ありがとうございます be better?

Most of my colleagues don't say anything at all, but this seems impossibly
rude to my internal American...




Your take is basically right. お先に失礼します doesn’t work that well because it would
essentially a little unexpected — it is a given that you would leave before
the guards, and plus, it’s not like the guards know or need to know you’re
leaving for the day the Xth time you walk past them. お疲れ様でした doesn’t work
perfectly because they aren’t near the end of their shift.

お疲れ様です does work, but isn’t exactly a parting greeting, just a polite thing to
say (but even then not that common for the following reason).

Saying nothing is the standard, and honestly it has to do with hierarchy
dynamic that the guards are serving you (same with receptionists) so there is
no need to be chummy from your end to someone providing a service (in fact
many people in such formal service positions do not know how to respond to
it). Like it or not, that’s the prevailing tacit understanding most people
have (though younger people are probably a little less in this camp).




Your take is basically right. お先に失礼します doesn’t work that well because it would
essentially a little unexpected — it is a given that you would leave before
the guards, and plus, it’s not like the guards know or need to know you’re
leaving for the day the Xth time you walk past them. お疲れ様でした doesn’t work
perfectly because they aren’t near the end of their shift.

お疲れ様です does work, but isn’t exactly a parting greeting, just a polite thing to
say (but even then not that common for the following reason).

Saying nothing is the standard, and honestly it has to do with hierarchy
dynamic that the guards are serving you (same with receptionists) so there is
no need to be chummy from your end to someone providing a service (in fact
many people in such formal service positions do not know how to respond to
it). Like it or not, that’s the prevailing tacit understanding most people
have (though younger people are probably a little less in this camp).

