Tax Trauma

It was a customer from out of state. She came in, I was the one available. I try not to be a counselor when doing taxes. It wasn't even a tax matter. Yet she wouldn't go away till she was heard. She needed a voice of reason. 

Whether someone had told her the wrong thing at a tax office, whether she had constructed it, or whether someone at the company responsible for the specific problem involved had misspoken, whether someone in her family or in the world had given her the wrong idea, or whether it was jut bad policy, no one will ever know. 

Sometimes I want to help too much. And she was triggered out the wazoo. Bills to pay. Refund was stuck somewhere. I'm pretty sure most people in that office heard just about everything she had to say. Sometimes it's like that. You work the day shift, you take walk ins, you get problems from other places. Other people. Other companies sometimes. There was a specific policy and a different company and a different office in a different state. But she left knowing the truth: however this happened, she was stuck with the same option. At least I was able to do that. 

When everybody's got an opinion, I try to emphasize the simple truth. 

Funny thing is, she was a nurse. Yeah, she told me all about that too. Not that I asked.