Declassified CIA documents detail how to sabotage employers, annoy bosses(independent.co.uk)

87 pointsby robinwarren11 anni fa21 comments

independent.co.uk

Declassified CIA documents detail how to sabotage employers, annoy bosses

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/declassified-cia-documents-detail-how-to-sabotage-employers-annoy-bosses-a6716961.html

21 comments

cryoshon11 anni fa

    "When possible, refer all matters to committees, for "further study and consideration." Attempt to make the committees as large as possible - never less than five.

    Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.

    Misunderstand orders. Ask endless questions or engage in long correspondence about such orders. Quibble over them when you can.

    Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.

    Be unreasonable and urge your fellow-conferees to be "reasonable" and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.

    Don't order new working' materials until your current stocks have been virtually exhausted, so that the slightest delay in filling your order will mean a shutdown.

    To lower morale and with it, production, be pleasant to inefficient workers; give undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers; complain unjustly about their work.

    Fill out forms illegibly so that they will have to be done over; make mistakes or omit requested information in forms.

    Spread disturbing rumors that sound like inside dope."

Seems like items 1-4 are strongly in effect at most places I've been to, unintentionally of course. The statements on committee-forming and pedantic wording ring particularly true, and I fear that these things are what people are learning from each other. You don't need a committee or meeting for most decisions, and the wording seldom matters so long as the spirit is there for internal documents.

elcct11 anni fa

I like when government "wants" to solve some problem and instantiate a committee... it straight away means that they won't do a thing.

sigsergv11 anni fa

Some points from original PDF:

Make "speeches." Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your "points" by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate "patriotic" comments.

When training new workers, give incomplete or misleading instructions.

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.

chetanahuja11 anni fa

So... Either this is an inside joke or basically every company in America (and very likely everywhere) is a CIA front.

sigsergv11 anni fa

Made a readable version of original document part related to office work: https://gist.github.com/sigsergv/4ef7760bce859c67e298

paulus_magnus211 anni fa

higher quality version

http://www.simplesabotage.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Ori...

dsfyu404ed11 anni fa

This is less of a how to sabotage and more like a list of productivity killing things they acknowledged were killing productivity and a suggestion that they can be applied in the context of sabotage.

While unsurprising, it's mildly amusing.

woodman11 anni fa

11.a.5: "Haggle over precise wordings of communications..."

"productivity killing" is exactly what sabotage is, be it cutting railroad track or persuading telephone operators to randomly drop calls. You just said that sabotage is sabotage applied in the context of sabotage :)

mring3362111 anni fa

Dogbert? Is that you?

violentvinyl11 anni fa

So the CIA invented Change MAnagement back in 1944 then?

devonkim11 anni fa

They seem to have done most of the ITIL 2.0 taxonomy. Service desk, CMDB, service catalog, and it wouldn't take much more for a PPM document.

signa1111 anni fa

cia in 1944 how is that possible ? the agency was founded in 1947...

lsaferite11 anni fa

In the first paragraph on the linked page

> In 1944, CIA’s precursor, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), created the Simple Sabotage Field Manual.

mariodiana11 anni fa

"Pay every employee, whether good or bad, 70 thousand a year."

isoos11 anni fa

The original of the document seems to be open since 2012: https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/...

I'm wondering how much it would take to invert every item, and turn the guide document into management best practices.

raverbashing11 anni fa

Also it originates on the OSS (the precursor to the CIA)

hga11 anni fa

And given that the OSS was infamous for being populated with high social status corporate types, "Oh So Social" was one variant it was called, we can be very sure they learned these methods, one way or another, in the organizations they came from, so it's inherently useful either way.

rasur11 anni fa

This would explain a few of the places I've worked at :(

cm218711 anni fa

My employer has been heavily infiltrated!

vijayr11 anni fa

I wonder how many of us reading this are nodding their heads and saying the same thing! Either there are too many spies in the workforce, or the agency needs to up it's tactics. Perhaps starting with "keep fiddling with your phone in meetings", "put Annoy-a-tron in your boss' room" etc.

weland11 anni fa

Shit man, at this point I'm wondering if I'm not actually working for the CIA's industrial sabotage training department. That list is basically an SoP.