Globe, meet Bangalore. Bangalore, meet Globe!

Published Mar 02 2007, 02:21 AM by Adam Reilly

Who, exactly, is currently being trained at the Boston Globe by sundry men and women whose jobs are bound for Bangalore, India later this year?

According to a tip Media Log received earlier tonight, it's the Bangaloreans (Bangalore-ites?) who'll be doing said jobs in a few months. This account was promptly confirmed by Boston Newspaper Guild president Dan Totten.* "As bizarre as that sounds, that's correct," Totten said. "The whole thing is pretty darn disgusting to us, but to further insult our workers--to have to sit there and train these people is just undignified, at best. It's appalling, nothing more than that."

"It's the biggest lie, the biggest secret in the city of Boston," Totten added. "The Boston Globe and the New York Times don't want anybody to know about this because of their editorial positions--how they constantly tell other corporations how to act and how to treat their employees. They don't want that made public."

However, Globe spokesman Al Larkin offered a somewhat different account when he spoke with Media Log a few minutes ago. "I would confirm that there are people who are from the firm that we're outsourcing to on the premises at Morrissey Boulevard right now, setting the systems that we use and examing the procedures that we use," Larkin said. Also, Larkin couldn't confirm that the current trainees are from Bangalore as opposed to some other Indian locale.

Of course, whether they're training their replacements or the people who'll be training their replacements--wherever they're from--it can't be pleasant for the people who work on the financial end of the Globe's advertising and circulation departments to be facilitating their own demise. Which raises the question: have the trainers been told they might lose any severance packages if they refuse to comply? Said Larkin: "Some severance packages are contingent upon them continuing to work until a certain date, and that is in order to help us transfer the processes."

*NOTE: An earlier post on this subject included Totten's comments but not Larkin's rebuttal; this post is a replacement.