I just learned something about myself from another thread re: noise at work. In my twenties, I had finished the post-secondary course work, taken State Social work exam, received LCSW, and was working at my second State Social Worker assignment. My supervisor was far down the hall from my office. My office was in a somewhat pod, with another worker near me and a third empty office about equidistant. The worker in the office near me kept her bring-in-boom-box style radio on all day tuned to her soap operas b/c she didn't want to miss them. I had set up my office with all the various form (I had learned) in my desk drawer, prepared for come-what-may. This office I was assigned to also had a window, which I could keep open for better breathing, no A/C. The woman in the other office also had explicit audible language conversations. I felt her soaps were quite off color. I asked my supervisor about all day radio exposure, and she said nothing about the subject, but suggested I accept client interviews in the empty office, which she then called an interview room. Not willing to undo all the organizing I had done, I said I would rather just stay. I mentioned someone else in the building who interviewed in his own office (he also brought his dogs to work, which I guess she felt was tantamount to listening to a radio all day.) I felt the distance between my client interviewing in my office, which had an exit door was no different from them having to hear her radio, than moving to a different room every time a client came in. One day, while being pregnant and enduring a migraine, I felt her soaps were making my brain explode. I went to her room and asked about lowering her ongoing radio and she did not yell but made a very insulting response. I answered her loudly that I thought her soaps were interfering in a professional work space. I have seldom raised my voice, ever, and even surprised myself when I answered her back. Later my supervisor said she was surprised b/c I sounded like fish wife (I don't know what that sounds like.) Meanwhile, I was elected shop steward. Soap Opera Lady told me she had asked for a promotion from Social Service Assistant to Social Worker and didn't get it, and filed a hearing with personnel at the central office. I was assigned to represent her/ go with her. She did not inform me that she had received a written reply. Appearing with her at Central Office, the head of personnel pulled out her response from them (that she had never shared with me) and said, "You are not eligible for the position of Social Worker b/c you did not go to college, did not take Social Worker's exam, do not have a SW license, and are therefore ineligible. I had egg on my face. She told me on the way back that her letter from them said eligibility. Rather than belay this with similar accounts, I learned that I should have taken the supervisor's suggestion and met with clients in the so called "interview room." I learned this supervisor's style was to wish problems would go away or be avoided, but to not be actively involved in intervening. When the person who brought his two dogs to work everyday resigned, she told me, "I was hoping for this for a long time." Lesson learned: when your supervisor suggests something, consider it a directive.