A method and apparatus to detect and prevent mute abuse by contact center agents provided by an application with an event listener in a contact center communication system are described along with various methods and mechanisms for administering the same. Based on predefined thresholds, the event listener can detect and notify a contact center supervisor and/or a systems administrator when certain mute timing thresholds are not met and/or mute timing thresholds are exceeded. If the exceptions provided by the event listener suggest that an agent is deliberately circumventing a metrics scoring system and/or avoiding work by placing a caller on mute rather than accepting and addressing a work item, service observing monitoring, logging, and disciplinary action can occur.