[pythonistic]

I had bench time when I was a "consultant." I used it for skills improvement (like learning a new framework or billable service), creating and presenting training materials for formal courses we offered, interviewing candidates, creating white papers, creating internal training materials on new frameworks or new versions, and infrastructure work like pulling cables, setting up hardware, or working on internal tools.

If you're still getting paid, they likely see you as a valuable asset for future projects. It can't hurt to ask if you can help with sales calls to build new skills and relationships, or if there are smaller projects where you can be billable.