[MiyamotoAkira]

Being in the bench is not unusual for Consultancy companies, where there is no necessarily alignment between finishing with a client and starting with the next one. Or even starting directly on a client when you join them.

Quite useful time to spend learning.

[wildzzz]

Many big government consulting companies will have a constant pool of employees that have nothing to work on for a few reasons: they have a job but are waiting on a clearance to start work, they were hired for/working on something that didn't pan out so they are waiting for a new job, or they've got a job but the project hasn't been given a green light to start working it yet. These workers may be able to find some low level work to keep busy or they have some training budget that can be spent on bootcamps but sometimes there is just nothing for them to do other than just spend all day looking at the internal job board and canvassing program managers for work. The last situation is the worst to be in, you only get to bill overhead for so long until you get laid off. The good part is at least you're getting paid while applying to other companies in the evenings. Unless you know there's a position waiting for you, its best to spend as much training money as you can and find a new company before the lay off comes.

My company likes to do the complete opposite. There is always endless work to do because we only hire if there's an immediate need for someone. The upside is that you're always going to be busy and lay offs are very rare. The downside is that we are perpetually understaffed.