Completely agree with Dietmar's comments (even though I wonÂ’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, itÂ’s how they have been raised and itÂ’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 itÂ’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 theyÂ’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 youÂ’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.
ThatÂ’s my two cents, hope it helps
(IÂ’m considering a career change by the way, maybe phsycology?
)