Why Burnout Is Still Taboo in Mauritius

Burnout exists in Mauritius. We just rarely call it that.

People don’t usually say “I’m burned out.”

They say things like:

• “Mo krwar mo fatigué”

• “C’est normal”

• “Tou dimounn stressé”

• “Li pou passé”
  
  

And then they carry on.

This isn’t denial. It’s culture. And it’s one of the reasons burnout remains quietly pushed under the rug.

1.Burnout isn’t dramatic here — and that’s part of the problem

When people hear the word burnout, many imagine something extreme:

• emotional breakdowns

• people collapsing at work

• public resignations

• visible crises
  
  

But in most Mauritian workplaces, burnout looks far more subtle.

It looks like:

• emotional withdrawal

• reduced enthusiasm

• doing the job, but not really being there

• fewer ideas, less initiative, quieter meetings
  
  

Nothing explodes. Everything just slowly drains.

And because nothing looks dramatic, nothing feels urgent.

2.The cultural reasons burnout stays unspoken

Burnout is taboo not because people don’t feel it — but because talking about it clashes with deeply ingrained norms.

1. Endurance is respected more than expression

Mauritian work culture values:

• "resilience"

• patience

• endurance

• “getting on with it”
  
  

Struggling quietly is often seen as maturity. Speaking openly can feel like weakness — or worse, complaining.

So people adapt. They normalise exhaustion.

2. “The other comparison” silences real stress

There’s a strong comparative mindset:

“No one else is talking about it.”
“Other people are somehow handling it.
“It’s not that bad, because only I have it.”

This creates emotional self-censorship. Stress gets dismissed — even by the person experiencing it.

Over time, this makes burnout feel illegitimate.

3. Hierarchy discourages honest conversations

In many organisations:

• managers are not expected to handle emotions

• stress conversations feel inappropriate or risky

• employees fear being labelled as fragile or difficult
  
  

So silence feels safer than honesty.

Not because people don’t trust leadership — but because the system doesn’t clearly allow these conversations.

4. Burnout is treated as a personal issue, not a work issue

Because burnout isn’t openly discussed, it becomes internalised.

People assume:

• “I’m not managing well”

• “I'll get through it”

• “This is my responsibility”
  
  

This shifts burnout from a work design issue to a personal failure.

And once that happens, organisations struggle to respond — because there’s nothing visible to respond to.

3.When something is taboo, solutions never follow

Here’s the structural problem:

• If burnout isn’t named → it isn’t measured

• If it isn’t measured → it isn’t budgeted

• If it isn’t budgeted → it isn’t addressed
  

So organisations focus on symptoms instead:

• disengagement

• attrition

• performance dips

• quiet quitting

Burnout becomes the invisible root cause behind visible business problems.

This invisibility exists despite how common burnout actually is.

In Mauritius, employee burnout appears to follow global patterns, with roughly 1 in 4 employees experiencing burnout very often or always.

When something this widespread remains unnamed, it’s easier to dismiss it as “normal” rather than recognise it as a systemic pattern.

4.The real cost of keeping burnout hidden

Burnout doesn’t usually end with people suddenly failing.

It ends with people:

• disengaging quietly

• emotionally detaching from their work

• doing the minimum required

• eventually leaving — often without ever explaining why
  
  

By the time burnout becomes obvious, the cost is already paid:

• lost performance and productivity

• lost talent

• lost momentum

• lost trust
  
  

And leaders are left wondering what went wrong.

5.Before we fix burnout, we need to talk about it

Burnout doesn’t mean something is wrong with your people. It often means something is unsustainable in how work is structured.

But nothing can change if the topic itself remains uncomfortable.

The first step isn’t solutions.

It’s language.
Permission.
Normalisation.

In the next article, we’ll break down what burnout actually is — and what it isn’t — using a simple, practical analogy that makes it easier to recognise before it becomes damaging.


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– Stress is the hidden cost behind disengagement at work
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– Most workplaces called toxic aren’t — they’re chronically stressful
👉 https://www.tomekjoseph.com/most-workplaces-called-toxic-arent-theyre-chronically-stressful