International Women's Day Stories: Rachel Bates

To celebrate International Women's Day and Neurodiversity Celebration Week, both in March, Greene Sky and Ability are sharing the stories and experiences of inspirational neurodiverse women at Greene King. In this edition, we're talking to Rachel Bates, Copy Team Manager in Creative Services.

Hello! I'm a Copy Team Manager at Greene King, managing a team of writers on the Creative Services Team. We support Greene King and Destination brands with a range of copy requests, including emails, web pages, articles, printed materials, and paid media ads. I absolutely love my job and working for Greene King!

Outside of my role, I'm the comms lead for Ability, our employee-led inclusion group that aims to unlock opportunities for team members with visible and invisible disabilities.

It honestly feels like I've been here forever! I've been at Greene King for nearly 3 years and made the jump from fashion retail to hospitality after spending a decade at Next. I worked in pubs, bars and restaurants during my undergraduate and post-graduate years (and most of my twenties while I freelanced!), and there's honestly no better place to work than the hospitality industry.

I was first introduced to our Greene King ELIGs during my initial management training, and I immediately knew I wanted to join Ability. I have ADHD and OCD, so I'm very passionate about looking after my mental health and making sure I can be the very best I can be, but I'm also really passionate about breaking stereotypes about mental health conditions, neurodiversity and disability in general. I'm part of Ability because of my own lived experience, and I'm also passionate about sharing knowledge, starting conversations, increasing support for our team members with disabilities, and banishing outdated stereotypes.

I've had OCD since I was a child, and during my lifetime (such as points of stress during family issues, university finals), I've had many courses of therapy to make sure I'm keeping on top of my mental health condition and noticing when things aren't quite right.

In a course of group therapy sessions about five years ago, I mentioned that I often felt that the therapy covered 50% of my brain, but I felt as though it never worked on some things. It felt like half my brain was fighting the other half. It was one of the therapists in that group who mentioned I might want to look into if I also had ADHD, as some of the symptoms I had resonated with the condition, and off on the diagnosis journey I went.

I took the ADHD UK screening test, and my results were very high, so my GP referred me for an official diagnosis, but I was warned that the wait was between 3 and 5 years, which was a real blow. After a few long years with no word, I decided to go private and pay for the diagnosis and treatment myself and was formally diagnosed in 2025. Now that I'm on the correct medication to combat my inattentiveness, I feel amazing, and my close friends and family have noticed a real difference.

I think that it's a lot harder to be diagnosed if you are a woman because of outdated stereotypes, but I also think it's a lot harder to be diagnosed if you already have a comorbid condition. It's recognised that people with ADHD are also more likely to be diagnosed with mental health conditions like OCD, GAD (Generalised Anxiety Disorder) and Depression, but if you have the other condition first, it's often hard to stress to a doctor that what you're feeling isn't a symptom of your mental health condition.

Yes absolutely! I think there are some extremely outdated stereotypes of what the typical person looks like or how they behave for many forms of neurodivergence. A lot of them definitely hinder women. In ADHD, the usual stereotype is a hyperactive child who disrupts classrooms and can't concentrate, and is usually seen as a boy from a gender perspective.

At school, I was on the other end of the scale. For the subjects I loved, I was a perfectionist to the point of obsession, and I was very good at hiding my weaknesses with subjects I struggled with. I was also very quiet and didn't speak up much.

Many, many years later, when someone first mentioned they thought I might have ADHD, I had to admit it was this outdated stereotype I went back to, thinking 'it can't be me', but it actually was.

I have combined ADHD, which means I swing between bouts of hyperactivity and inattentiveness. This means I have to be really 'on it' with time and task management, especially since I manage a team and need to make time for them, too. I also have to watch my food and drink intake carefully; ADHD medication reduces 'food noise' and natural feelings of hunger, so if I'm in a hyperfocus, I will often forget to eat and drink. It's very common for me to be still working my way through my breakfast at lunchtime.

I find a lot of novelty and excitement in switching tasks, so I use the 'Pomodoro' method to complete all my assignments in a week, and I make sure I never forget anything with an intricate system of reminders in my diary and calendar. Intense written instructions often go over my head, so I talk through the work to make sense of it. I also break larger tasks down into smaller chunks, as I often find them overwhelming. I like routines and processes as these help me to manage my day, manage my team’s workload and manage the quality of work we provide to the business, but if there’s a change I can find that overwhelming.

I really struggle with noise, distractions, and sensory overload, so I carry a pair of Loops earplugs with me at all times to help drown out distractions, and I will often go to a quiet room for an hour if I need to complete something.

Stimming (repetitive physical movements, sounds, or actions) is a very common symptom in ADHD, and I do this a lot, so I will always have a 'fidget' on my desk to hold when I'm in meetings or on Teams. It just helps me stay super focused when my body's feeling a little restless.

In my previous roles, I have often found that assumptions about my capabilities change when I disclose my conditions, which is extremely deflating, but it's one of the things I love about working at Greene King. I was really open about my mental health and neurodiversity with my own Line Manager (Lauren Gaffan) from day one, and she has always been incredibly supportive and never questioned my ability to work as hard as the rest of the managers in my team.

In Ability, we are always respectful and supportive of each other, and we have a lovely atmosphere. Many of our committee members are also Mental Health First Aiders (myself included!), and we're looking for ways to promote that support if it's ever needed.

Within the wider business, there are many ongoing initiatives aimed at supporting team members with visible and invisible disabilities. We're focusing on what it means to conduct marketing in a responsible way, highlighting accessible facilities in our pubs, launching an exciting new Knowledge Hub, and continuing our excellent relationship with the Business Disability Forum.

I like to think of neurodivergence in this way: neurodivergent people are Macs, neurotypical people are Windows. One is no better than the other; they're just wired differently and complete the same task differently.

Oh, and please don't get mad at me if I interrupt you! I struggle a lot with social cues and the 'right time to talk' in conversations, so if I'm not looking at you directly in the eye, it's because I'm watching your breathing and waiting for the right time to strike with my burning question!

When I think of 'Give to Gain' in respect of my own lived experience, I believe it is essential for all of us to open up the conversations about disabilities in general, which is always a great thing. The more knowledge we give, the more knowledge we gain.

I think some people are afraid to ask questions or aren't sure how to interact with a disabled or neurodiverse person in a 'politically correct' way, but a little moment of awkwardness can dispel stereotypes and break barriers.

I'm always so open about my own experience because I finally feel that I can be my authentic self, but also that it might help someone who is too afraid to confide in others about their neurodivergence, or who is at an earlier stage in their diagnosis journey and might feel a little lost.  

I think it's so important to learn about neurodivergence because one small change in communication, ways of working and ways of thinking can make a world of difference, and we can always do more to support our colleagues, our teams and our managers.