Otsukaresama desu or Otsukaresama deshita

Please read the previous post about “Arigatou gozaimasu or Arigatou gozaimashita” first! Here are other expressions: “Otsukaresama desu” and “otsukaresama deshita.” (You are tired.) The same rule applies here, too.

It’s 7 PM and all employees are going home after work. What would you say to your colleagues? 

 “Otsukaresama deshita.”

Work for the day is finished, so the past tense “deshita” is used. Japanese people say this to each other to mutually acknowledge their hard work. Like “arigato”, you can say “otsukaresama desu” in the present tense.  

Actually, you always hear “otsukaresama” at Japanese companies during the day and not only at the end of the day or after long meetings. People say it whenever they pass by each other. You can consider this expression to be a greeting used in the same way as “ohayo” and “konnichiwa.” 

And, in cases where work is not over yet, you should say it like this: 

  “Otsukaresama desu.”

Even in the middle of the day, it expresses something like “You’ve been working hard today. Are you tired? Are you okay?”