Episode description

Is your workplace overrun with unqualified managers, red tape and bureaucracy?

Are you asked to sit in on arduous meetings with no real consequence when you’ve got deadlines coming out of your ears?

Maybe that’s just office politics.

Or maybe, just maybe, it’s a deliberate ploy against you, decades-long in the making with deep roots in espionage and sabotage. Welcome, friends, to the world of citizen saboteurs. 

It all dates back to 1883 to the father of American intelligence, William Joseph Donovan. “Wild Bill” they called him and oh was he wild. After studying military strategy and combat tactics, Donovan formed his own troop known as the Silk Stocking Boys (you had to be there). 

He chased down Mexican bandits and rallied men to commit feats of bravery - sometimes under orders, sometimes off his own bat. With a bullet in his knee, Donovan lead his men through German fire, refusing to turn back when even the American tanks were retreating. A heavily decorated war hero, Wild Bill was a badass.

But, not everything he did was obvious to the untrained eye. 

Working for a private secret organisation, Donovan started gathering intelligence on the developments throughout Europe leading up to World War 2. This attracted the attention of MI6, and that’s when Wild Bill started playing with the elites - Churchill, Roosevelt, movie stars and aristocrats - they all loved him. Heading up the Office of Strategic Services, which was the precursor to the CIA, Donovan was instrumental in a colossal number of acts of sabotage.  

Eventually, he got his people to build a manual centred around the idea that sabotage is a game that anyone can play. You don’t need guns, bombs and aeroplanes. Sometimes all you need is to be annoying. 

With instructions for managers and workers alike, Donovan’s book was filled with genius ideas to piss your enemy off - just enough to discombobulate them, but not get yourself caught. 

I’ll be damned. We’re under attack.

SOURCES:

• Vanity Fair - Spymaster General: The adventures of Wild Bill Donovan and the “Oh So Social” O.S.S.
• Simple Sabotage - The Simple Sabotage Field Manual - Strategic Services Field Manual No.3 (1944)
• Central Intelligence Agency - The Office of Strategic Services: America's First Intelligence Agency
• Britannica - William J. Donovan - United States diplomat and general
• Fandom - William J. Donovan

Support sources:

• The Business Insider - The 16 best ways to sabotage your organization's productivity, from a CIA manual published in 1944
• Corporate Rebels - Advice From The CIA: How To Sabotage Your Workplace
• Wikipedia - William J. Donovan
• National Park Service - William J. Donovan
• Irish America Magazine - “Wild Bill” Donovan: Irish-American War Hero and Superspy

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