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

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

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.