I work in an American subsidiary of a Japanese company. I met a few Japanese
colleagues while working at the home office on an exchange. Do I need to use
Keigo for:

Colleague A: 1 year younger in age than me and joined the company at a later
time. It seems like I could use the desu/masu form without Keigo, but since we
belong to different departments, different branches, etc., I'm not sure
whether he is in-group or out-group.

Colleague B: Not 100% certain about age and seniority, but probably the same
age and seniority as me or my junior.

Colleague C: 6 years younger than me and much less seniority. Should I use
plain forms to talk down to him? I decided not to since I wasn't sure whether
we were all in-group or considered out-group.
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2011-07-26T00:26:35.967
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question
business-japanese keigo
Should I use keigo in this situation:
I think in general you are safe using plain form with people in your group who
are younger than you and in lower position (usually the same at a Japanese
company though).

the tricky part is someone who is younger than you in a different dpt. I would
just use Teine-go which is what desu/masu can be referred to.

In general, you don't need to use keigo in your office while talking to people
unless there is a huge gap in level. Like talking to a dept manager/CEO or
what not.
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2011-07-26T00:48:22.227
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answer
The answer to this can be extremely company-specific, particularly in a
company with a significant presence in the US.

> Colleague A: 1 year younger in age than me and joined the company at a later
> time. It seems like I could use the desu/masu form without Keigo, but since
> we belong to different departments, different branches, etc., I'm not sure
> whether he is in-group or out-group.

In a cross-department meeting or a one-on-one meeting, standard desu/masu
forms are appropriate. If you're both talking to a customer (or other
outsider), humble forms are often appropriate for anything/anyone related to
your company.

> Colleague B: Not 100% certain about age and seniority, but probably the same
> age and seniority as me or my junior.

Stick with desu/masu, unless it fits into the last comment below.

> Colleague C: 6 years younger than me and much less seniority. Should I use
> plain forms to talk down to him? I decided not to since I wasn't sure
> whether we were all in-group or considered out-group.

There are two places you will routinely hear 'plain forms' in a business
setting.

  1. Coworkers who are extremely casual (depending on the corporate culture)
  2. Speaking down to direct reports. Especially first line managers will routinely use casual (or even fairly rough) speech with their direct reports.

Everyone else pretty much always uses at least desu/masu forms.

* * *

You choose honorific predicates depending on who you're talking about, not who
you're talking to. Speaking to a direct report about the VPs/visitors upcoming
trip might involve the plain-form of いらっしゃる.
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answer