More time for poker!!!

Well, I was laid off today. Fuck them. Someone asked what their selection criteria was. Their answer, "A wide range of criteria was used." Bullshit. Fuckin' tell me how it is. Over half the internal sales desk was cut. Including me, a "Visionary Award" winner as well as last year's "Internal Wholesaler of the Year" as well as one of the guys that put up the top stats day in and day out. Fuck them.

The company I worked for was ING Funds. Management of their sales team was a complete and utter joke. One of the externals kept on was a poor excuse of a human being. A snake who would throw anyone under the bus if it meant making him look better. He was buddy buddy with the national sales manager (who also should have been sued for sexual harrassment on several occassions, a complete and utter jackass for what it's worth). Poor decision after poor decision. How they handled this whole process was a fucking joke.

The company as a whole (ING Groep) does appear to be in good shape and I do think they are one of the better buys in the financial sector of the markets right now. ING Funds is a very small piece of their pie and a poor reflection on the company overall (ING Groep is the world's largest financial services company per Fortune Global 500 and #7 in the world in any industry). I would be very surprised to see ING Funds ever becoming more than a third tier fund complex. Fuck them.

Anyways, I had texted my wife this morning informing her that it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if I got the axe and I meant it. Now that that has come true, I still feel the same way. Time to look for bigger and better things.

For the lawyers out there, I was interviewing for a position as part of their Online Sales Solution specialist last month. After the interview "concluded," the sales manager asked if we could just chat for a bit longer. Asked me if I really did want to become an external wholesaler. My obvious answer was "Yes, of course." He then went on a 5-10 minute speel about FlexSpending account for medical. He concluded that I should do something about my teeth.

In the meantime, I'll be at the tables, focused on becoming a better poker player so that sometime down the road it will actually be a nice source of secondary income. I couldn't be happier =)

DubsPoke