Life in Mauritius

Punctuality 0%,not all open minded, its a multi cultural country with hindu, muslims, christian, chinese, tamil, telegu. cost of living is not so expensive, but day by day it is getting a bit expensive.

Hi Birgit, welcome to Expat.com

Mauritius is a small island, consequently, the communities are rather close knit. open mindedness in this case, will be extremely subjective. but when i returned to the country in 2010, after almost 4 years of being away, i found that perspectives are slowly changing and open mindedness is growing. also, with an influx of foreigners to the country, things are definitely more laid back now. narrow mindedness is the trait of any society, but i just go by the 'live and let live' attitude. as long as narrow minded people don't impose their views on me, i just carry on with my life and ignore them.

punctuality, irrespective of where a person lives, is very important. it reflects positively on the individual and therefore, you can never go wrong by being punctual. some good habits should never be lost it'll garner respect for you in the business field as well.

cost of living is subjective to how much a person's earning. but average Mauritian household, i'm certain, finds it high and things just keep getting more expensive.

Thank you for your answers

Can you tell me something about the working conditions?
How would you describe the political situation?

you're most welcome

what field of business/work are you looking at??? working conditions will depend on the field and the company you're working with, also whether it is a government organisation or privately owned. will also depend on the size of the company/business. are you referring to perks/fringe benefits and things like that?

re: the politics, i'm not currently in the country but when i left, the political situation was quite disastrous. maybe another member could give you an update

hi Damien, welcome to Expat.com to be honest, joining Expat.com is one of the best ways to make friends with people before moving to a different part of the world. once you've created an online network of friends here, you'll easily be able to meet up with them once you're in Mauritius.

and yes, i can confirm that Mauritians are very open and friendly and mix with expats really well i like to believe that Mauritians love exposure to different cultures, hence, the openness and friendliness also, there are loads of cool places to hang out in Mauritius, offering further opportunity to meet new people your age.

you could check out the networks in Mauritius, grouped by Nationality: https://www.expat.com/en/network/africa/mauritius/

Thanks Nero!

Birgit Austria

It would be so enlightening to learn what Nero Life qualifies as a quite disastrous political situation, when he left. I am a local, and I can neither recall any such situation nor understand this observation.

There are quite many interesting openings. The conditions of service are nearly similar across the fields of activities, whilst the salary varies quite significantly on the basis of qualifications and experience, and also on the status of the company.

There is very remote chance that you get a job in the Government. Anyway, the salary is not so attractive there.

As regard the standard of living, you can live comfortably with a salary of not less than €2,000/-, but this is quite subjective as the notion of comfort varies widely.

Cheers
Vayid

hi Vayid well, my use of the word 'disastrous' is subjective i guess but i'm very happy to hear that things are alright do take care, warmest regards, nerolife.

Mauritius is Awesome!!!

4. How are the business etiquettes in Mauritius? Is title important in business communication? What's about punctuality (in Austria it is very important)?

Very different from Austria Austrian mindset might not work out well - you might go crazy - study and adapt / many Germanics cannot cope with how things work here and when trying to have it like in the German way grow wiery, tired and depressed because it doesn't get taken/implemented - and many have left. I dont want to sound discouraging, but the adaption process doesn't come easy - it depends also from person to person. Example, if a plumber doesn't come, you have to always politely request when can they can come and not scream at them giving them a unpunctuality lesson. Such things are taken personal. To call them 10 times can happen, i mean that they dont come so often then you need to look maybe for a new plumber... But if this goes on your nerves its only you that will suffer... So like the saying goes: pena problem

Concerning punctuality:
When very important some people are more than punctual, they come early!
It just depends! A double check call before the important might work wonders for you. Over the years this has quite improved i must say.

Completely agree with Dietmar's comments (even though I won't be arriving till next month )...

I think Austrians/Germans/Swiss etc. natives can get extremely hung up on this kind of thing as it is in their nature, it's how they have been raised and it's how their peers behave but in my experience when they are outside of their native environment, it can cause real stress.

Until recently I had been seeing an Austrian girl for about three years. I had met her through some German friends and from the get-go I pretty much realised that this kind of thing (her Germanisms as I used to put it ) were quite prominent, almost irrational.  As an Irish person I would consider myself and Irish people as a whole, quite laid back and these things stood out to me instantly.

The simplest of things were (in my opinion) blown out of all relative proportion and far too much stress was placed on certain things un-necessarily. Simple things like not crossing the road until the traffic lights showed a green man, despite there being no cars for a 600meters in either direction. Or insisting on going to bed and waking up un-necessarily early, even at the weekend or compartmentalising everything you own  despite already having drawers/cupboards for these things.

I know this may sound like me highlighting problems from an ex relationship but these were personality traits I have noticed in all of my friends from Germanic countries, I even have some Austrian friends that would see themselves as 'beatniks' (in the modern sense of the word) but were still hung up on planning everything to the last detail and being extremely punctual in all situations, to a point where they would become really worked up and stressed out.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that, these qualities are highly desirable qualities for a person to have as they show that they hold their professional duties and reputation in high regard, these qualities can convey trustworthiness so they can only be beneficial in a business/work environment... But where these qualities are applied when outside of your home country should always be relaxed a little in my own opinion

However, what I will say, is that if Mauritius is anything like Ireland (I gather it's even more laid back) I think people with these personality traits just need to remind themselves that they do not need to place so much emphasis on these particular aspects of life as the people around them may not value these traits in the same way they've been brought up to, and as such by being overly conscious of these things, they will only cause themselves undue stress.

If your perceived view on an overly laid back environment gets to you, my ex used to find that following exercises helped:
Take a deep breath, quickly weigh up the potential outcomes of how you choose to address the given situation and simply try to strike a rational balance.

And chill-out, don't forget you're on a tropical island with high humidity so the pace of life will be significantly more relaxed, it doesn't mean things won't be done right or the end point will not be reached, people will just go about things a little differently.

That's my two cents, hope it helps

(I'm considering a career change by the way, maybe phsycology? )