How do I stay connected to the people my decisions affect?

You carry the burden of consequence, and at the same time you feel the numbing distance between the rule on the page and the person it lands on. That numbness is an occupational hazard, and the fact that it bothers you is a good sign. It means you haven't gone cold. Rules made from too far up become abstractions, and abstractions are easy to get wrong in ways that hurt real people. The distance is efficient but dangerous. Your job is to keep bridging it, to remember that behind every line of policy is a face you'll probably never see. Before your next decision, put one real person in front of you. A specific family, a specific worker, imagined in honest detail. Ask how the rule lands on them. That small act of imagination is how you keep the distance from turning into indifference.