What should I say when a senior colleague is leaving before me? When leaving before a senior colleague does, people say , and the senior employee responds or . is also usually said when a colleague of the same seniority is leaving. However, seems like something to say to someone of equal or lower seniority while is for someone with lower seniority. It feels awkward (only my opinion, but please feel free to correct if this is a wrong notion) to say to someone of higher ranking. If a senior colleague is leaving, what is the best thing to say?

According to , the Agency for Cultural Affairs () conducted a study on this topic and found that 69.2% of people used to someone of a higher rank vs. 15.1% for . To someone of a lower rank, 53.4% used , vs. 36.1% for .

So I would conclude from this that it is safe to use to someone of a higher rank, whereas should probably be avoided. seems to be used more in either case anyway.