If you find yourself switching back and forth between local and world you might want to take a second to set up a "double tap shortcut". I went into a bit more detail HERE, but basically you tap a key once and it will do something like select the scale tool. Tap twice and it will cycle the gizmo to local, do it again and…
You're probably working in local coordinates instead of world. Switch those around and see if that alleviates your issue. If that doesn't fix it, Tools -> Reset xForm