The Symbol of Blocked Phone Calls in The Coworker

What Are the Blocked Phone Calls?

In The Coworker, blocked phone calls act as a concrete motif that appears whenever Natalie Farrell answers Dawn Schiff’s office phone or receives anonymous calls at home. The calls are blocked numbers—no caller ID displayed—and they carry either ragged breathing, silence, or a single whispered plea: “Help me.” The calls recur at key moments in the narrative, always ramping up Natalie’s anxiety and signaling that someone is watching or manipulating her. The motif connects directly to themes of deception and framing, guilt and remorse, and workplace bullying.

Where the Motif Recurs

The first blocked call occurs in Chapter 1. Natalie finds Dawn’s phone ringing with a blocked number. She answers, hears a woman whisper “Help me,” and then the line goes dead. This call establishes the central mystery of Dawn’s disappearance and thrusts Natalie into a state of unease.

The second occurrence is in Chapter 10 (Chapter 9 in the text). After visiting Dawn’s house, Natalie returns home to find her front door unlocked. Inside, her phone buzzes with a blocked call. She answers and hears only silence or faint breathing—no words. The call reminds her of a past pattern of anonymous threats, deepening her fear that someone is targeting her.

In Chapter 18 (Chapter 17), Natalie gets another blocked call at home immediately after turning on the news about Dawn’s disappearance. Again, only silence. Natalie’s past experience with similar calls is referenced: months ago she received blocked calls that hissed threats, but those had supposedly stopped. The recurrence makes her suspect a link to Dawn.

In Chapter 36 (Chapter 35), Natalie is at the beach disposing of broken pottery (the ceramic turtle). Her phone rings with a blocked number. She answers angrily, shouting “I know who you are” and threatening to call the police. No reply comes. This call occurs right after she destroys evidence, heightening her paranoia that someone is tracking her movements.

Finally, in the Epilogue, Natalie mentions that she faked blocked calls from Seth’s wife Melinda to manipulate Seth into believing his wife was dangerous. This retroactively shows that the blocked call motif can be weaponized—not only against Natalie but also by her.

How the Meaning of the Calls Changes

At first, the blocked call with “Help me” seems like a genuine cry from Dawn. But as the calls continue with only silence, they morph into a psychological weapon—possibly wielded by Dawn herself to torment Natalie, or by someone else to keep Natalie off balance. By the epilogue, we learn that Natalie has no moral objection to using the same technique, which undercuts her victimhood and aligns her with the manipulative forces she fears.

Character Connections

Natalie Farrell is the primary receiver of the calls. Her past (only hinted at) includes a history of receiving blocked calls with threats, which suggests she has enemies or has been a target before. The calls in the present trigger that old trauma and make her hypervigilant. Her attempt to trace the calls via a tracking app (Chapter 38) fails because the app wasn’t installed earlier, highlighting her powerlessness.

Dawn Schiff is the likely originator of the first “Help me” call, even though she is absent from her desk. The call’s desperation suggests she was already in danger when she made it. Later, Dawn’s motives remain ambiguous; she may have used blocked calls to frighten Natalie as part of her psychological game. The epilogue reveals Dawn’s craftiness, but the text never explicitly states that she placed the later silent calls.

Seth Hoffman and Detective Santoro are secondary characters who hear about the calls but do not experience them directly. Seth dismisses the first call; Santoro investigates Dawn’s disappearance without focusing on the calls.

Theme Connections

The blocked calls reinforce the theme of paranoia : Natalie cannot trust her senses or the people around her. The calls also embody deception: even the “Help me” plea may be a performance designed to lure Natalie into involvement. The motif connects to guilt and remorse because Natalie’s guilty conscience (over her embezzlement and past manipulation) makes her feel that the calls are deserved. Finally, the calls function as a form of workplace bullying that extends beyond the office—an anonymous, lingering harassment that disrupts both professional and personal life.

Study Questions

1. How does the blocked phone call motif shift from an external warning to an internal psychological tool?
   Answer: The first call is an external plea (“Help me”) that draws Natalie into Dawn’s disappearance. Later calls are silent or contain only breathing, fueling Natalie’s paranoia and sense of being watched. In the epilogue, Natalie admits she faked blocked calls from Seth’s wife, showing that the same motif can be weaponized for manipulation. The shift mirrors Natalie’s own moral journey from victim to perpetrator.

2. What does Natalie’s reaction to the blocked calls reveal about her past?
   Answer: In Chapter 10, Natalie thinks: “I used to get calls like that all the time… but I haven’t gotten a call like that since… it’s been several months.” She also notes that a past “situation” is now over, implying she was once stalked or threatened. The calls trigger that old trauma, making her feel hunted again. This explains why she becomes so anxious and why she later tries to trace the caller.

3. Why does the author include a blocked call during Natalie’s beach evidence-disposal scene?
   Answer: The call occurs just as Natalie destroys the ceramic turtle figurine (which had blood on it). The timing suggests the caller is watching her—or that her guilt makes her imagine she is being watched. The call destroys her sense of control; she shouts into the phone but gets no response, emphasizing that she is not the one in charge. It underscores the theme that no secret remains hidden.

4. Is it ever confirmed who makes the silent blocked calls to Natalie?
   Answer: The novel never explicitly identifies the caller. However, the epilogue shows that both Dawn and Natalie are capable of using anonymous calls for manipulation. Given that the silent calls begin after Dawn’s disappearance and that Dawn has a motive to frighten Natalie (to keep her from exposing the embezzlement), it is plausible that Dawn placed them. Yet the text leaves it ambiguous, reinforcing the motif’s function as an instrument of uncertainty.