[PL_kolek]

I can confirm that - "on bench" was a real term used in a software house I worked for in Poland. I think it becomes a necessity when your company doesn't have a product on its own but delivers projects for other companies. Depending on the needs of your clients, the projects may be short 3 months stints or longer years long cooperations. In an environment like that firstly you want to be able to start working as soon as the contract is signed, so you must have some staff available all the time, and secondly you don't want to wreck the morale by letting your staffing level fluctuate with the workload. Hence some people are "on bench", waiting for a project to come, doing internal work or upskilling. This company was the best one from the ones I worked for in my career BTW