Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

Simple Sabotage Field Manual

  1. Managers and Supervisors: To lower morale and production, be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers; complain unjustly about their work.
  2. Employees: Work slowly. Think of ways to increase the number of movements needed to do your job: use a light hammer instead of a heavy one; try to make a small wrench do instead of a big one.
  3. Organizations and Conferences: When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committees as large and bureaucratic as possible. Hold conferences when there is more critical work to be done.
  4. Telephone: At office, hotel and local telephone switchboards, delay putting calls through, give out wrong numbers, cut people off “accidentally,” or forget to disconnect them so that the line cannot be used again.
  5. Transportation: Make train travel as inconvenient as possible for enemy personnel. Issue two tickets for the same seat on a train in order to set up an “interesting” argument.

Simple Sabotage Field Manual (PDF file)

2 thoughts on “Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

  1. shinichi Post author

    Simple Sabotage Field Manual

    Office of Strategic Services (OSS)

    https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2012-featured-story-archive/CleanedUOSSSimpleSabotage_sm.pdf

    **

    Timeless Tips for ‘Simple Sabotage’

    Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

    https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2012-featured-story-archive/simple-sabotage.html

    Simple_Sabotage.jpgSince World War II, US intelligence agencies have devised innovative ways to defeat their adversaries. In 1944, CIA’s precursor, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), created the Simple Sabotage Field Manual.

    This classified booklet described ways to sabotage the US’ World War II enemies. The OSS Director William J. Donovan recommended that the sabotage guidance be declassified and distributed to citizens of enemy states via pamphlets and targeted broadcasts.

    Surprisingly Relevant Sabotage Instructions

    Many of the sabotage instructions guide ordinary citizens, who may not have agree with their country’s wartime policies towards the US, to destabilize their governments by taking disruptive actions. Some of the instructions seem outdated; others remain surprisingly relevant. Together they are a reminder of how easily productivity and order can be undermined.

    Reply
  2. shinichi Post author

    The 16 best ways to sabotage your organization’s productivity, from a CIA manual published in 1944

    Richard Feloni

    http://www.businessinsider.com/oss-manual-sabotage-productivity-2015-11

    In 1944, the CIA’s precursor, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), distributed a secret pamphlet that was intended as a guidebook to citizens living in Axis nations who were sympathetic to the Allies.

    The “Simple Sabotage Field Manual,” declassified in 2008 and available on the CIA’s website, provided instructions for how everyday people could help the Allies weaken their country by reducing production in factories, offices, and transportation lines.

    “Some of the instructions seem outdated; others remain surprisingly relevant,” reads the current introduction on the CIA’s site. “Together they are a reminder of how easily productivity and order can be undermined.”

    We’ve collected below some of the timeless instructions on how to be a terrible employee. What’s most amusing is that despite the dry language and specificity of the context, the productivity-crushing activities recommended are all-too-common behaviors in contemporary organizations everywhere.

    See if any of those listed below — quoted but abridged — remind you of your boss, colleagues, or even yourself.

    Organizations and Conferences

    • Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
    • Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences.
    • When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and consideration.” Attempt to make the committee as large as possible — never less than five.
    • Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.
    • Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.
    • Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.
    • Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reasonable”and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.

    Managers

    • In making work assignments, always sign out the unimportant jobs first. See that important jobs are assigned to inefficient workers.
    • Insist on perfect work in relatively unimportant products; send back for refinishing those which have the least flaw.
    • To lower morale and with it, production, be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions.
    • Hold conferences when there is more critical work to be done.
    • Multiply the procedures and clearances involved in issuing instructions, pay checks, and so on. See that three people have to approve everything where one would do.

    Employees

    • Work slowly.
    • Contrive as many interruptions to your work as you can.
    • Do your work poorly and blame it on bad tools, machinery, or equipment. Complain that these things are preventing you from doing your job right.
    • Never pass on your skill and experience to a new or less skillful worker.
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *