People Like Us
A man in a grey suit sits waiting in a corporate interview room, hands clasped, a clock on the wall behind him and other candidates seated along the walls.

Reject the Rejections — for jobseekers

A People Like Us film

  • Produced by new—landDirected by Amara Abbas
  • In collaboration with Worth Your WhileStarring Ebenezer Gyau
  • Co-written with Yasmin AliMade with Real rejection letters

Drawn from real automated rejection emails, the cold language of corporate hiring is reimagined as a spoken-word performance, giving voice to the invisible barriers ethnic minority professionals face every day.

75% of job seekers don't know that they may have a legal right to request a human review of an automated rejection.

Read the research

Nobody should be rejected by a system before they are seen

Did you know that you may have the right to request a human to review your job application? It takes a minute and it's free.

Get a template
A woman in a dark coat stands holding a yellow paper folder, a coat rack beside her.

You may have the right to request a human review

Fill in the details of the role you applied for. Copy, and send the response from your own email as a reply to the rejection so it stays in context.

The letter is drafted in your browser — the details you enter above are not sent to us or stored anywhere.Privacy Policy

Any details you share will be handled securely and in line with UK GDPR. If you opt in, People Like Us will contact you once, 30 days from now, only to ask whether you've received a response to your request for a human review. We won't use your details for anything else.

Your request

Dear Hiring Team at [Company],

My name is [Name], and I applied for the [Job Role] position on [Date Applied]. I am writing to formally request a human review of my application.

I have reason to believe my application may have been screened using automated hiring technology. Under UK data protection law, where decisions are based solely on automated processing - meaning no meaningful human involvement - individuals may have the right to be informed, to contest the decision, and to request human intervention.

I raise this not out of distrust, but because research has shown that automated hiring tools can inadvertently reproduce biases present in historical hiring data, disadvantaging qualified candidates in ways that are hard to detect without human oversight. I trust a personal review would help ensure my application is assessed fairly on its own merits.

I'd appreciate it if you could first confirm whether automated processing played a part in this decision and, if so, explain the criteria or logic it was based on. I'd also be grateful if a qualified team member could review my application and materials directly. Please let me know what steps I should take, and I'd welcome confirmation once the review is complete.

As I understand it, organisations are generally expected to respond to a request like this within one calendar month. If you need more time, please just let me know when I can expect to hear back.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely, [Name]

Reject the rejections

Automated hiring systems are rejecting people before a human ever reads their name. Ask your MP to support better hiring transparency.

A man in a grey suit stands in a corporate room, other people out of focus behind him.

What to watch for and actions to take when you think a decision was automated.

Advice for jobseekers
A man in a turban stands in profile against a pale wall, another candidate seated out of focus behind him.

About the campaign

People Like Us champions ethnic minority talent until workplaces reflect the world they serve, holding organisations and governments accountable along the way. This campaign is about one specific right most jobseekers do not know they may have: the right to a human review when an algorithm rejects your application.