Comment by canucker2016

The feature is called "unified inbox" - faxes appear as a PDF attachment in an email inbox somewhere.

If the government department had a unified inbox for emails/faxes accessible by workers, then there wouldn't have been any "pain" in the form of consumables by the fax machine. That was my worry.

Luckily for the author, the article says the fax number was handled by an old-school, real-life fax machine:

  It was Karen. She sounded breathless. She sounded like she was standing next to a machine that was hyperventilating. In the background, I could hear a rhythmic whir-chunk, whir-chunk.

  "Yes?" I answered, my voice the picture of innocent helpfulness.

  "Sir, please. You have to stop the fax. It’s… it’s been printing for an hour. It’s jamming the machine. We’re out of toner."