Etymology: The Origin of "Sabotage" and the Myth of the Wooden Shoe

In the modern corporate lexicon, "Sabotage" conjures images of corporate espionage: a rogue employee deleting the production database or selling trade secrets to a competitor.

But the origin of the word points to something far more subtle and pervasive. It speaks to a form of resistance that every engineering leader has faced, often without realizing it.

The word comes from the French word Sabot—a wooden shoe worn by peasants and factory workers during the Industrial Revolution.

The popular legend says that angry workers, fearing that new machines would steal their jobs, took off their wooden shoes and threw them into the gears of the textile looms to break them.

While historians debate the frequency of this literal act, the etymological truth is even more instructive for modern management.

The verb Saboter didn't originally mean "to destroy"; it meant "to walk noisily" (clattering with wooden shoes) or, more importantly, "to work clumsily or bunglingly."

1. The Myth vs. The Reality

The romantic image of the "Luddite" smashing a machine is dramatic. It represents Active Resistance.

But the true origin of Sabotage describes Passive Resistance.

Workers didn't always break the machine. Instead, they worked as if they were wearing heavy, clumsy wooden shoes.

• They worked slowly.
• They followed instructions too literally (Malicious Compliance).
• They "bungled" the job just enough to lower productivity without getting fired.

They didn't stop the factory; they just ensured it never ran at full capacity.

2. Modern Sabotage: "The Wooden Shoe in the Code"

In a software company, active sabotage is rare. You rarely have an engineer delete a repo.

But Passive Sabotage is endemic. It is the modern equivalent of "working clumsily."

It looks like this:

• Malicious Compliance: "I built exactly what the Product Manager asked for, even though I knew it would break the UI."
• weaponized Process: "I can't fix that bug until there is a Ticket, a Spec, and three approvals."
• Information Hoarding: Writing code that is intentionally complex so that "only I can maintain it" (Job Security).

This is Sabotage. It is the deliberate reduction of efficiency by people who feel powerless or unheard.

3. The Diagnosis: Why Workers Throw Shoes

The French workers didn't throw their sabots because they hated technology. They threw them because they had no equity in the outcome. The machine represented their obsolescence, not their progress.

If you sense "Sabotage" in your team (slowness, bureaucracy, cynicism), do not treat it as a disciplinary issue. Treat it as a Structural Issue.

People sabotage systems when:

1. They lack Autonomy: If they are treated like cogs, they will act like broken cogs.
2. They fear the Outcome: If automating a process means they lose their job (or their relevance), they will "bungle" the automation project.
3. They are ignored: Sabotage is the voice of the voiceless. It is a way to assert control over a system that refuses to listen.

Summary

The next time a project is dragging on inexplicably, or a simple feature takes 4 weeks to deploy, ask yourself:

"Is this incompetence, or is this a Sabot?"

Are your engineers working clumsily on purpose because the incentive structure is broken?

You cannot fix sabotage with tighter management (that just makes them throw more shoes). You fix it by aligning the incentives so that the success of the machine benefits the operator.