Rude Subway Rider Gets Karma Payback After Shoving Man Out of His Way En route to Job Interview

(Illustration - Shutterstock)

A British man named Matt Buckland shared a hilarious Twitter anecdote about karmic retribution in February 2015. The highly ironic tweet, illustrating strange, cosmic justice, went viral, entertained millions, and still circulates today.

Buckland was traveling to work on a London subway one Monday morning during rush hour when a harried commuter pushed him out of the way, muttering an expletive at him as he went.

Buckland recalled standing aside to let a female commuter off the train at London’s Monument Station, as per the Daily Mail. The agitated man, Buckland assumed, thought he was being deliberately obstructed and lashed out.

“I think he thought I was just standing in his way,” Buckland explained, speaking to Buzzfeed. “He pushed and I turned, I explained I was getting off too, but he pushed past and then looked back and suggested I might like to [expletive] myself.”

Illustration - Shutterstock | Tania Volosianko

Buckland, then a human resources executive at London-based venture capital firm Forward Partners, brushed off the unpleasant encounter and continued on his way to work, yet he hadn’t heard the last of that man.

Later that same day, Buckland was preparing to interview a potential new employee, and who should walk through the door to interview for the role of Python developer but a very familiar face (guess who). Buckland couldn’t resist sharing the karmic encounter on Twitter.

“Karma,” Buckland posted on Feb. 16, 2015, “the guy who pushed past me on the tube and then suggested I go F myself just arrived for his interview ... with me.”

The job seeker, Buckland realized, had no idea that he had come face to face with the same man from the subway encounter upon entering the interview room that Monday afternoon.

Illustration - Shutterstock | Elle Aon

“It was totally awkward,” Buckland told the BBC. “So I approached it by asking him if he'd had a good commute that morning.”

Buckland explained that by the end of the interview, he and the job seeker had laughed over the retrospective comedy of their earlier encounter and were “both happy.” Buckland even asked for the interviewee’s blessing before sharing the cautionary tale of karmic retribution online.

“I don’t think it’s public shaming as he hasn’t been named,” said Buckland, speaking to the BBC. “I’ve been in contact with him and he’s fine about it. Although understandably, he doesn’t want to do any interviews.”

Buckland’s tweet was liked over 19,800 times. The HR executive’s funny, viral anecdote also sparked a series of similar anecdotes on social media with tens of thousands of supportive comments.

“Oh, that is delicious,” wrote one Twitter user. “I thought this was the sort of thing that only happens in movies.”

“I wonder how this interview went,” added another. “Did you hold it against him?”

As it turned out, the interviewee didn’t get the job, though Buckland maintained that it wasn’t because of the awkward encounter on the subway train. “It would be easy to hold something like this over someone in an interview,” he reflected, as per Buzzfeed, “but for me interviews aren’t about that.”

“When you interview you are looking for a read of skills,” the HR executive explained, “but also to know if that person is a real human being. [I]t’s about that connection.”

Buckland concluded by expressing hope that his interviewee may learn to maintain “a better attitude” on his morning commute, as he just might need some help from a fellow commuter himself one day.