In 1944, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)—the precursor to the modern CIA—dropped a literal bombshell of a document onto the desks of European citizens living under Axis occupation. It wasn't a manual on how to build a high-grade plastic explosive or how to assassinate a high-ranking general. Honestly, it was much more devious than that. It was a guide on how to be a terrible employee.
The simple sabotage field manual cia writers knew something that most modern HR departments still haven't figured out: you don't need TNT to bring a powerful organization to its knees. You just need a few people who are willing to be incredibly annoying, bureaucratic, and "thorough" at exactly the wrong time.
It’s scary.
When you read through the original declassified pages today, you start to realize that the "sabotage" described in 1944 looks suspiciously like a Tuesday morning at a Fortune 500 company. We aren't talking about blowing up bridges. We are talking about the soul-crushing weight of unnecessary meetings and the strategic use of "oops, I forgot."
The Art of Doing Too Much by Doing Nothing
The OSS understood human psychology better than we give them credit for. They defined simple sabotage as acts that didn't require expensive tools or specialized training. It was designed for the "ordinary citizen" who wanted to help the Allied cause without getting caught and executed.
The manual is divided into different sections, but the "General Interference with Organizations and Production" chapter is where things get truly eerie. It advises saboteurs to "insist on doing everything through channels." Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.
Sound familiar?
If you’ve ever sat in a meeting where a simple decision was deferred to a committee, which then deferred it to a sub-committee, you have experienced a tactic straight out of the simple sabotage field manual cia. The OSS specifically told their agents to "bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible" and to "haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, [and] resolutions."
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They weren't trying to destroy the building. They were trying to destroy the momentum.
Why Paperwork is a Weapon
The manual suggests that if you are a clerk or an office worker, you should "misfile essential documents." Just a few folders out of place. Nothing that looks like a crime, just a "mistake."
Think about the sheer brilliance of that. If a factory loses its blueprints for two days, production stops. If a manager can't find the authorization form for a shipment, the trucks sit idle. It is low-risk, high-reward disruption. The OSS knew that a "stupid" employee is much harder to catch than a violent one. You can't execute someone for being a bit clumsy or forgetful, can you?
They even suggest making "mistakes" in long-distance telephone calls. Hang up on people. Put them on hold and forget they are there. Give them the wrong extension. These are the "grains of sand" in the machinery of war.
The Manager as a Saboteur
One of the most fascinating—and frankly, hilarious—parts of the simple sabotage field manual cia is the advice given to those in positions of authority. If you were a foreman or a supervisor in an occupied territory, the OSS had very specific instructions for you.
- Always turn over unimportant work to the most efficient workers. This burns out your best people and ensures the important stuff gets handled by the slackers.
- Insist on perfect work on relatively unimportant items. Spend three hours formatting a memo that no one will read.
- To lower morale, and with it, production, be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. It’s almost painful to read because it happens every single day in modern corporate culture. We call it "bad management" or "toxic culture," but in 1944, the United States government officially classified these behaviors as acts of psychological warfare intended to cripple the enemy's economy.
When a manager insists on "re-examining" a decision that was already made, they are technically following the OSS playbook. The manual says to "refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision."
It’s a masterclass in bureaucratic paralysis.
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The Kitchen and the Commute
The manual didn't stop at the office door. It went everywhere. It gave instructions on how to ruin a communal meal (put too much salt in the soup) and how to mess with transportation.
If you were a passenger on a train, the OSS suggested you "act as stupidly as possible." Ask the conductor dozens of questions. Take forever to find your ticket. If you're driving a car, "use gas of poor quality" or "let the air out of the tires" of enemy vehicles.
But even these physical acts were secondary to the psychological ones. The manual emphasizes the importance of "crying and sobbing hysterically" in public places to lower the general morale of the population. It was about creating an atmosphere of incompetence and despair.
Why We Still Talk About This Manual in 2026
The reason the simple sabotage field manual cia remains a cult classic isn't just because of its historical value. It's because it serves as a mirror.
Most people read it and laugh because they see their boss or their annoying co-worker in the text. But there’s a deeper lesson here for anyone running a business or a team. If the CIA (then OSS) identified "excessive bureaucracy" and "constant meetings" as weapons of war, why are we using them as standard operating procedures?
We have accidentally weaponized our own workplaces against our own goals.
The Nuance of Incompetence
There is a fine line between a genuine mistake and intentional sabotage. The OSS knew this. They cautioned their "saboteurs" to never look like they were trying to help the Allies. They had to look like they were trying their best but were just... unfortunately bad at their jobs.
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This creates a "fog of war" within an organization. Is Dave from Accounting actually a secret agent? Probably not. He’s probably just tired. But the result is the same as if he were a trained saboteur. The work doesn't get done, the deadlines are missed, and the organization's goals remain unfulfilled.
The manual teaches us that efficiency is fragile. It requires everyone to be rowing in the same direction. One person dragging their oar in the water is enough to make the boat go in circles.
Actionable Lessons from a 1940s Spy Guide
If you want to protect your organization from the types of "accidental sabotage" described in the simple sabotage field manual cia, you have to do the exact opposite of what the manual suggests.
- Kill the "Channels": If a decision can be made by two people in a hallway, don't wait for a formal meeting. The manual wants you to wait for the meeting. Deny it that victory.
- Reward Impact, Not Compliance: Saboteurs love compliance because they can follow the rules to the letter while violating the spirit of the work. Focus on the outcome, not whether every single "t" was crossed.
- Short-Circuit the Bureaucracy: If you see someone "haggling over precise wordings" in a document that doesn't really matter, call it out. Realize that perfectionism is often a form of procrastination—or, in this case, sabotage.
- Protect Your Best People: Don't give the "unimportant work" to your stars. That's exactly what the OSS told managers to do to kill a company's spirit.
- Stop Re-Opening Decisions: Once a call is made, move forward. Re-litigating old decisions is the fastest way to stall a project.
The simple sabotage field manual cia is a dark, funny, and deeply insightful look at how easily human systems can be broken. It reminds us that sometimes, the most "professional" looking behaviors—the meetings, the memos, the committees—are actually the most destructive.
Keep the sand out of your gears.
Next time you're stuck in a four-hour meeting about the font size of a PowerPoint deck, just remember: you're not just bored. You're being sabotaged.
Next Steps for Efficiency
- Audit your meetings: Look at your calendar. Any recurring meeting that hasn't produced a tangible "go/no-go" decision in the last three weeks should be deleted or radically shortened.
- Simplify communication: If a process requires more than three "approvals" for a low-stakes item, remove two of them immediately.
- Review the manual: Read the full declassified PDF from the CIA archives to see which other "sabotage" tactics have crept into your daily routine. It's a short, fascinating read that will change how you view your office forever.