If you are wasting time and not doing anything whilst on the bench means you aren't taking the initiative to go around and finding work and opportunities around. I once had a transitionary period between two projects and was on the bench for 4 months but took the opportunity to ask for work around and did the following items.
- Reviewed through training materials, updated them and worked with the training team to update it and get local context to it
- Helped another team working on proposals, get to know the type of proposals and how the tender process was as well as learning to get all the necessary data required and learned how to not provide too much detail but enough details to win a proposal
- Helped organise office events, mostly to get more face time with the senior management and get name out there

There are just so many things that can be done. But if your attitude is to just datang office waste time, says a lot about your attitude.