Happy at work

"Maria, your luck is like my luck — no good!” quipped Frank, one of the seven employees at the convenience store Tiger Mart in San Diego, befriending a gray-haired woman who had just purchased some lottery tickets in the hope that they may bring her good fortune.

Featuring him in her "People at Work” series for Voice of San Diego, Kelly Bennett learnt that although the nametag on his black logoed shirt simply read "Frank,” his real name was Farrokh Yazdani. Working for 80 hours a week, he leaves home at 5 a.m. from Monday through Friday, is at Tiger Mart from 6 in the morning to 2.15 p.m. after which he drives to Mira Mesa where he starts work at 2.45 p.m. for another eight-hour shift assembling boxes for blood tests sold by Biosite. When he reaches home at midnight, his wife is already in bed. He eats dinner, plays with his white poodle, Barfi (named after the Persian word barf for snow) and goes to sleep. Within four hours he is awake to start the next day’s grind. "All of this to pay his bills and make his mortgage payment on his home in Rancho Bernardo,” writes Bennett.

Farrokh Yazdani at the store, Tiger Mart

Earning $ 10 per hour at Tiger Mart and $ 12 per hour at Biosite, 55-year-old Yazdani said, "They don’t give us money to save. They give us money to spend and to pay taxes and to work…”

In fact work has been the only constant in Yazdani’s life, beginning at his father’s restaurant in Pakistan when he was 13 years old. After he earned his Bachelor’s degree in commerce, he bought his own restaurant. Then he lost his wealth to a gambling habit — "horse race, cards, everything,” he candidly admitted. Forced to start life afresh, he moved to Tehran, married, and worked at a hotel. After the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 the social scenario changed and being Zoroastrians "we were suffering,” he observed.

Ultimately in 2001 he decided to migrate to the US claiming refugee status and has been living there since then with his wife and two children aged 28 and 26. Having worked for Tiger Mart for eight years, his manager Rigoberto Juarez noted, "At the beginning he was a little grouchy with the customers. He used to fight, to argue… But he’s really learnt a lot. I taught him to be friendly. Ever since, he built up a lot of friendships. That’s why he’s my No. 1. He’s my right hand.”

Around noon Bennett noticed Yazdani trying to convince a customer to buy an energy drink saying, "It will wake you up, shake you up!” When Bennett asked Yazdani if that’s what he used to keep himself alert, he responded, "No, I use my own energy. I have good energy.”

Looking at the plus points of his domicile in USA: the respect he earns from Juarez at Tiger Mart, the salaried jobs held by him and his wife (she works for Biosite in the morning shift), the freedom of religion and social behavior that he enjoys in the United States, Yazdani said he is happy in life and would gladly be of help to anyone in need: "I want to keep everybody happy.”