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

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 Axis-run 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"Some of the instructions seem outdated; others remain surprisingly relevant," reads the current introduction on the CIA's site.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."

Business Insider has gone through the manual and collected the main advice on how to run your organization into the ground, from the C-suite to the factory floor. 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. And if they do, you should probably make some adjustments or find a new job.

You can read the full manual at the CIA's website »