Before I get into the meat of this writing, I want to give a public service announcement. Earlier this week, the IRS released a new alert about scammers pretending to be from their agency to get personal information from unsuspecting victims. The largest takeaway from the announcement is IRS Commissioner John Koskinen saying, “Don’t be fooled. The IRS won’t be calling you out of the blue asking you to verify your personal tax information or aggressively threatening you to make an immediate payment.”

And sure this is a bit self-serving, but add this to the list of reasons why it is better to go into tax season with qualified professionals on your side who can help you navigate the increasingly muddied waters. But even apart from that, if you ever end up in a situation that feels wrong, chances are it is wrong. If someone asks you over the phone or through email for information that you don’t feel you should give them, don’t give it to them. 

Even if real situations with the IRS arise (and wouldn’t you really want to not be doing it by yourself then?), you shouldn’t feel bullied, but it is going to feel disconcerting. You have an almost mythical government organization coming down upon you. Their power seems great, your power seems small and any chance of your voice being heard – never mind actually winning – seems impossible.

In such situations, what we are seeking is justice.  We do not want to just feel like a cog in a large machine that is expected to do its part without being seen as an individual piece. This is something that is easy to understand on this large scale, with such a remove beyond us as single people and government agencies, but it also must be understood on smaller scales.

Last week, I wrote about how the difference between being a promotion- or prevention-focused person affects how you think about business and the work you do. If someone in your company (especially those higher up) works from a different focus than you, it is easy to feel that things are moving in directions of which you disapprove and are impossible to control.

Of course, it is possible for people who use different viewpoints to work together. It is even a positive, for the more views that are heard, the more potential problems are ready to be combatted. This works best, however, when everyone feels that they are being heard, especially if the choices they would have made aren’t the ones being implemented.  This is called “procedural justice.”

That term is often applied to larger concepts of law enforcement and jurisprudence, but the concept of fairness in dispute resolution and resource allocation trickles down to the smallest areas of our lives. Those spots are even more important, for they are the ones where we feel we should be able to exert some power.

So remember that in the workplace. Pay attention to how we can make jobs easier for those around us. If you are able to implement changes, don’t do so in a way that only addresses your problems. Everyone around you has the same positive goals, the more we listen to each other and try to address their problems when making changes, the better chance we have of making those changes happen.

Assuming total power only serves the will on one individual. Make concerted efforts so that a group can work together and where that group ends up will be further than you could get alone.