What Working for the Government Taught Me About People

When people hear that I work for the government, they usually imagine tax laws, regulations, audits, and paperwork.

They're right.

My job is filled with rules.

Every day I read statutes, review records, compare numbers, and make decisions based on the law.

But after years of doing this work, I realized something unexpected.

The most important thing my job has taught me has very little to do with tax.

It has taught me about people.

When I first started, I thought every audit would be simple.

The law was the law.

People either followed it or they didn't.

It sounded straightforward.

But the longer I stayed, the more I realized that life is rarely that simple.

Behind every business is a person.

Behind every mistake is a story.

Some people made careless decisions.

Some truly misunderstood the law.

Some were overwhelmed.

Some trusted the wrong advice.

Some were trying their best while carrying burdens no one else could see.

Over the years, I have sat across from restaurant owners, mechanics, daycare providers, florists, liquor store owners, and families who poured everything they had into keeping a small business alive.

Many of them weren't trying to cheat the system.

They were simply trying to survive.

The longer I worked, the less interested I became in judging people.

Instead, I became curious.

I wanted to understand how they arrived where they were.

What decisions led them here?

What fears were they carrying?

What pressures did they face before I ever walked through their door?

That doesn't mean the law no longer matters.

It does.

Rules exist for a reason.

Part of my responsibility is to apply them fairly and consistently.

But I have learned that applying the law and understanding people are not opposites.

In fact, I think both are necessary.

One of the hardest parts of my job is knowing that I can genuinely empathize with someone while still being unable to change the outcome.

There have been meetings where I understood exactly why a taxpayer felt frustrated.

I understood why they believed they were right.

I understood the disappointment on their faces.

And yet, I also understood why the law required a different conclusion.

Those moments stay with me long after the meeting ends.

They remind me that life is full of situations where two people can sincerely believe they are doing the right thing.

Working in government has also changed the way I see strangers.

When I meet someone today, I rarely assume I know their story.

The quiet cashier at the grocery store.

The business owner answering emails late at night.

The parent dropping off children at school.

The person sitting silently in a waiting room.

Everyone is carrying something.

Most of it remains invisible.

Maybe that is the greatest lesson this job has given me.

Not tax knowledge.

Not auditing skills.

But humility.

The understanding that people are more complicated than the decisions they make.

More complicated than a tax return.

More complicated than a case file.

More complicated than the mistakes written on paper.

One day, I hope to build my own CPA firm.

When that day comes, I know I will still remember what I learned sitting on the other side of the table.

Because before people become clients...

Before they become taxpayers...

Before they become case numbers...

They are simply human beings.

And I never want to forget that.