>> I've never heard of a "professional bench warmer" in software development.

I think this is real.

My friend who is serial Project Manager (he works for big corps here in Poland and changes job almost every year for last 15 years) actually uses the term "on bench" for programers that do not have projects assigned to them and he claims that he quite often hires people before project is confirmed, so from time to time some people are left hanging without free chairs when music stops.

I have 20+ years of experience in different companies (software and just using software);and I never ever heard of this behaviour.

I never changed job (Unusually work 2-4 years at one company) where I didn't have everything ready on my first day.

I have heard of this at Infosys in the US

IBM and Accenture in the Philippines.

Ah. I live in the EU where they a person is quite expensive to onboard and it makes no sense to hire people to be idle.

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

yeah that's how a lot of consulting companies work

It happens for all sorts of reasons. Often managers are seen as important not because of what they produce, but how big their teams and budgets are. In that circumstance, hiring people is important, but getting anything useful out of them is secondary.

Or it could be pure chaos. Years ago I joined a startup that was scaling rapidly. The interview process was exciting, the people seemed great, and the compensation was very appealing. So I go in on my first day, eager to get to work. After sitting in the lobby a while, I'm told that they aren't ready for me, and could I come back?

The next day I come in, and they again say they aren't ready, they're very very sorry, and that I should come back tomorrow. So I do.

The third day I figure, great, now I'm going to get to work. But once again, nobody's ready for me. No desk, no computer, no nothing. They weakly suggest that maybe I could find a corner somewhere and read manuals?

I politely tell them that I think this isn't a match, GTFO, and never come back. They go out of business a few years later.

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.

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.