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Conventional ビジネスマナー tells us that ご苦労様 is used by superiors to subordinates
and お疲れ様 used by everyone, and this is backed up all over the internet and
stated on some questions here, like
[this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1266/when-and-to-whom-
should-i-use-the-expression-%E3%81%94%E8%8B%A6%E5%8A%B4%E6%A7%98-gokurousama).

But it seems that this isn't always such an ironclad rule. For example there
is [this question](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/4564/what-to-
reply-when-the-ladies-sweeping-the-steps-outside-a-temple-tell-
you-%E3%80%8C%E3%81%94%E8%8B%A6%E5%8A%B4%E6%A7%98) on here that shows that the
power relationship might not necessarily as strong as people say, and [this
site](http://oshiete.goo.ne.jp/qa/569853.html) in particular has a question
along similar lines and one (very lengthy) answer saying that, on the
contrary, ご苦労様 _should_ be used toward superiors because it has a stronger
nuance of thankfulness for work, citing examples from politicians and other
uses that emphasize the _role_ of the person rather than their _rank_ , and
that it may be changing such that it is appropriate to use it outside of the
context of rank.

In modern usage would it be a faux pas to say ご苦労様 to a superior or to someone
you don't know? Do native speakers really feel that ご苦労様 is more thankful?
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question
word-choice nuances politeness
Is it actually impolite to say ご苦労様 to a superior?
[Jake Adelstein](https://twitter.com/jakeadelstein) wrote last year on Twitter
that in Yakuza's world, お疲れ様 is almost prohibited and everybody use ご苦労様 or
ご苦労さん. I did not find everything but I found few
[tweets](https://twitter.com/jakeadelstein/status/196186125168152576).

> Lesson of the day for young yakuza: To the boss, ご苦労様 (go-kuro-sama) never
> "go-kuro-san" and never, never "お疲れ様" (o-tsukare-sama).

He also said [something
specific](https://twitter.com/jakeadelstein/status/196179004087209984) for the
journalism industry.

> I was taught as a journalist at a Japanese paper that we said, "お疲れ様" to the
> boss and ご苦労様 to those below us, but never ご苦労様 to the boss.

At the end, he rejoins you saying ご苦労様 is _better_
[saying](https://twitter.com/jakeadelstein/status/196189834161831937)

> Personally, I think ご苦労様"/Thank you for your hard work" beats お疲れ様" (Thank
> you, you must be beat). So to everyone working today: ご苦労様！

The guy is native level but he works as a journalist mostly on Yakuza stuff
his whole career so it is a specific point of view.

In my case, I work in a IT company and everyone use お疲れ（様／さん） and it would be
**rude** to use ご苦労（様／さん） for upper/same/lower level.
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answer