Caught in the Crossfire: How a Toxic Workplace Became an Office Mystery

For the past year, my workplace has been embroiled in an unsettling situation that resembles a plot straight out of a crime comedy. Our phones have been persistently hijacked by what appears to be a dating service. While we’ve got our suspicions about the culprit—a particularly problematic coworker—our pleas for assistance have largely fallen on deaf ears. Even our service provider, AT&T, has been unable to resolve this issue.

Desperately Seeking Solutions

As I grapple with the prospect of resigning, I find myself torn between a desire for justice and the need to escape an increasingly toxic environment. It’s particularly disheartening that this issue is occurring within the confines of a law firm, where the actions of my suspected coworker could lead to serious legal repercussions. One would think that such behavior would not go unnoticed, yet here we are, playing a modern-day version of Clue while keeping our trust issues under wraps.

The Technical Tangle

Our office is equipped with aging phones manufactured by a company called Comdial (now known as Zeracom), serviced by AT&T. We operate with six phone lines, one of which is the primary line for client calls. If the main line is busy, calls roll over to the next available line. Unfortunately, several times a day—sometimes as many as four—we find our individual lines forwarded to a suspicious dating service. This service is nothing more than a recording filled with background music, leading us to believe it may not even be a legitimate business.

The most perplexing part of this entire situation is that numerous professionals—from AT&T technicians to Comdial specialists—have consistently informed us that this forwarding must be initiated internally. Despite presenting this evidence to our management, they remain unconvinced, suggesting we simply switch our service provider. However, with an active contract in place and a much larger issue at hand—a potential saboteur in our midst—that solution feels like a flimsy band-aid.

Trusting the Right Allies

My direct colleague in this matter is my mother, who also happens to be the firm’s accountant. We share a tight-knit bond and unwavering trust in each other, which provides some comfort amidst the chaos. Our attempts to trace the source of these disruptive calls have been hampered by unreliable caller ID and frustratingly delayed call tracing options. Even after supposedly removing the call forwarding feature from our account, the issue persists,