What is a rogue employee? The online site Whatls.com defines it as probably originating from medieval English slang roger, for “a begging vagabond pretending to be a poor scholar from Oxford or Cambridge.” The first citations of the phrase “to go rogue” come from the 1920s, in reference to lone elephants that broke away from the herd and began to behave destructively.” In modern parlance it is generally recognized as an employee who shields his nefarious actions from management.
In the corporate world, “rogues” are most often referred to as breakaway employees whose actions put the company into hot water. This is part of a recurring myth that mean to absolve organizations from any blame in the face of a major problem; when such problems are the work of a rogue employee, no one in management could have known the rogue was up to misbehavior and, as such, management is blameless for the rogue’s actions. The management, so goes the logic, is just another one of the rogue’s victims.
