Why You Should Never Be Rude To Strangers On Public Transport

Original source : http://www.buzzfeed.com

Posted : February 2015

Author : Rossalyn Warren

Here’s why you should never be rude to strangers on public transport, especially if you’re on your way to an interview.

Matt Buckland was on his way to work at Forward Partners, a venture capital firm, where he’s the head of talent. Later that day, a familiar face walked through the door for an interview:

Earlier, it had been just like any other commute in London for Buckland – he was stuck on a busy, delayed train on the District Line, surrounded by tourists with suitcases, grumpy commuters, and schoolkids.

But on this particular Monday morning, Buckland had an unfortunate run-in with another commuter.

“At Monument Station, I stood to one side to let someone else off the train first and I think he thought I was just standing in his way,” he told 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 f**k myself…which might have been true but not before a few cups of coffee.”

At the interview, “at first he didn’t recognise me,” Buckland said. “I asked him how he got to the interview, how was his morning commute. (We were on the train in the morning but the interview was at 5.30pm that evening.)”

Buckland was perhaps more forgiving than most people would be, and they spoke about their shared hatred of commuting. He told us he didn’t hold it against the interviewee:

“It would be easy to hold something like this over someone in an interview, but for me interviews aren’t about that. When you interview you are looking for a read of skills but also to know if that person is a real human being, it’s about that connection. By the end of the interview we laughed it off and were both happy.”

Sadly, despite reconciling, the grumpy commuter didn’t get the job – but let this story serve as a reminder to be a little nicer on your morning commute.

~Blog Admin~