Jack in the Box franchise owner lives the American Dream (Houston)

[sonias]

KHOU 5/11/11
What's Right: Jack in the Box franchise owner lives the American dream

HOUSTON—Atour Eyvazian is known for giving employees at his Jack in the Box extra time off, with pay, for maternity leave. He pushes his staff to get off the food prep line and into management. And if they want a day off just to goof off, Eyvazian says take it.

"We have extremely low turnovers," said John Dishko, director of operations. He said the reason is because of Eyvazian’s relationship with his employees.

To understand Eyvasian you have to know his background. As a teenager, his parents paid smugglers to get him out of turbulent 1980’s Iran. He almost died crossing mountains.
"From 65 kilos I was 45. I lost 20 kilos in 10 days," said Eyvazian.

After barely surviving the mountains, he was thrown into a Turkish prison where he was tortured. Finally with money sewn into his pants, he bribed his way out of the prison and made it to America after winning a type of political asylum.

He moved in with an uncle who had previously come to America. Eyvasian did not know a word of English but got hired as the janitor at a Jack in the Box.

A great story about a Texan. Maybe he wasn't born here, but he's doing it right and we need more good people like Atour Eyvazian! :loveya: Mr. Eyvazian!!

[ret5hd]

1. Damn aliens. Always ruinin' it for the rest of us.

[sonias]

2. Surely you jest, right?

I mean he's helping his workers. That alone is a big piece of what is missing in American business these days.

:hi:ret5hd

[ret5hd]

3. uhhh...yeah. i thought it was obvious.

[kentauros]

7. Not just an alien, but an Iranian!

A terraist! Runnin' a fast-food joint better than Amurricans! :P

[sonias]

8. Those kinds are all welcome in my country

How quickly we forget our roots in this country. And forget we're all in this together.

Immigrants - it's what makes us better! :thumbsup:

[kentauros]

9. They are to me, too.

Just doing the typical RW-er overreaction ;)

Oddly enough, I have yet to have any of my fellow Houstonians object to the Iranian music I sometimes blare from my car. Either they don't know what it is, or don't care. Then again, the area of town known for being the hub of South Asians recently had it renamed to the "Mahatma Gandhi District". Other than some horrible acts of violence that happened after September 11th, most people are at least tolerant of the Middle Easterners and Indians here.

[ceile]

4. Nice story!

[sonias]

5. Yes it is

The video on KHOU is good too.

I want to call him a small business owner and I'm sure at some point he was. He's got 175 of them now so maybe he's a big business owner now. Either way he seems like he has not forgotten his past. He's still willing to help someone else out too. Hell of a guy!

[onestepforward]

6. Awesome!

What a story! I'm glad he made it to Texas :)
Kudos to Mr. Eyvazian!

[Schema Thing]

10. Mensch. ;)

[sonias]

11. much mo better human being ;)

I'm still smiling at the humanity of this guy. He survives torture as a young man and instead of dishing it back out - he's handing out the love to his fellow man.

:hug:

[MrsBrady]

12. I was just saying something like this at my day job...

if they would just make reasonable schedules, people would stay.
And we freaking have to jump through hoops to get a day off.
the reason they are having such high turnover with the part timers is that they give us sh*t schedules.
I don't understand why this is so hard to understand :shrug:

I'm going to have to leave soon if they don't come to their senses.
I've been holding out for a full time slot to open up. But I can't wait much more.
Who can work a split shift and be gone for 13 hours for 7 hours pay.
dumb dumb dumb :banghead:

[sonias]

13. Employees as most valuable assets

The very thing that employers forget. Now the way they see things is employees as costs - costing them money. Very wrong headed thinking.

Hope that things turn around for you MrsBrady. Maybe another Atour Eyvazian type of employer is looking for you out there too.

:hug: