LunchLottery: Back from the summer break
Right on time for the start of the semester, the LunchLottery is back. The next draw will take place next Monday. If you still need a good reason to sign up, you might find it in the testimonials of some of the participants.
It’s that time again: after a break for the summer, the LunchLottery is back, with a new draw to be held next Monday, 20 September. If you’d like to sign up in time for the next round, you have until Friday, 17 September to do so external pagehere.
Your LunchLottery stories
Before the summer break, we asked all those who took part in past LunchLottery rounds to share their personal LunchLottery stories with us. We’d like to present a few of those experiences here:
LunchLottery enriches everyday life
“When the LunchLottery was rolled out across all of ETH, I immediately signed up because we’d already had a positive experience with it in the ETH Library. It enriches everyday working life immensely to get to know new people even after years at ETH and to hear about the work they do – across all units and functional levels. The fact that the algorithm occasionally assigns a familiar face is a nice side effect. Now I’m looking forward to meeting some of my LunchLottery partners on site as well.”
Kathrin Ringger, ETH Library
The idea is brilliant
“I immediately signed up for the LunchLottery when I saw it, as I don’t have many friends here and wanted to get to know new people. I think that given the conditions back when it started, the idea is brilliant!
Out of 3 or 4 draws, I’ve attended only 2; for the others we couldn’t agree on a date. It was interesting to get to talk to new people, see how they’re doing and hear about their experience of these times. Although I was hungry for face-to-face interaction (I’m sick and tired of screens and monitors), it was better than nothing. Ultimately, I appreciate the programme.”
Agon Besimi, Master’s student D-HEST
The perfect networking option for new staff at times when working from home is mandatory
“Since October 2020, I’ve been responsible at ETH Zurich for organising the external pageInternational Chemistry Olympiad (IChO), which will be held in Switzerland for the first time in 2023. My main initial project thoughts were to get to know people, premises and processes as quickly as possible. Hm, but how can I do that when I’m all alone at home, staring at my computer with absolutely no human contact? So the LunchLottery came along at just the right time – and I’m delighted it has already borne fruit!
My LunchLottery with Fabienne Jaquet, Vocational education and training (VET), was a complete success – a very interesting and fruitful exchange. Not only was I able to gain more insight into the work of ETH VET, but Fabienne and I were also able to pick up on ideas that arose during this rather brief exchange, which was our first meeting.
Since then we’ve planned several small projects, some of which are already being implemented. The IChO organising committee strives to address the issue of promoting young talent across the board, i.e. not only in the STEM area (especially chemistry). This gave rise to the idea of also having ETH apprentices from various disciplines participate in the project team. We’ve got three projects off the ground so far – one with the apprentice media technician and one each with two apprentice interactive media designers. Further discussions are underway on how to integrate more trainees and come up with more projects.”
Linda Sonderegger, General Manager of IChO 2023
Good things come in threes.
“I’m sure many people know this old saying, and in my experience it’s a pretty good fit for the LunchLottery, too.
Excitement: An e-mail with the subject line “Your LunchLottery partners are...” would always get my curiosity going. Since all it gave you was their e-mail addresses, I would immediately look them up in the people search to see which areas of ETH my “lunch buddies” were from.
Fun: I really enjoyed taking a step back from hierarchies, team colleagues and points of commonality in everyday life and simply having a chance to exchange ideas with all sorts of people. We would always arrange to meet for a half-hour virtual coffee break, which was wonderful for mutual introductions and a brief discussion of the issues most on your mind at the time. It felt a bit like the spontaneous conversations you have at the coffee machine.
Social skills: My gut response to the question of whether these unusual and diverse coffee breaks have added value to my social skills is a definite YES.
I found each time to be a very welcome interruption to my daily routine, an opportunity to make lots of different social contacts and ultimately also to strengthen the culture and cohesion at ETH. And those three things are definitely good.”
Julia Dannath, Vice President of Personnel Development and Leadership