RTMark, an Internet-based company just named one of Yahoo Internet Life's 100 Top Sites for 2000, is the merry prankster of corporate sabotage. The group's most celebrated case was the 1993 Barbie Liberation Organization caper, in which RTMark operatives switched the voice boxes on 300 Barbie and G.I Joe dolls and then restocked them on toy shelves across America. Our goal is to harm the corporate person, which is not a living person. We want to tarnish their image. While many cases involve an employee or former employee with a personal gripe, sabotage can spread like winter flu through an organization where the work force in general feels at odds with the boss or corporation.
Sabotage is a cry for voice.
The problem is employers don't want to give employees a voice because it means giving up power, and the American managerial process is to give up anything but power. In this country, management has a way of thinking that if the pay is good, you should go home and shut up. That practice has greatly damaged the relationship between employers and employees. Focusing exclusively on customers and shareholders while sacrificing workers invites sabotage, which is really an indirect expression of frustration. Hagberg's data also suggest that employee alienation is increasing.