Infosys has a workplace initiative called "the Bench," where certain employees are essentially on-call freelancers who can go months on end without being assigned work and are therefore being paid for doing nothing. One anonymous employee talks about how being on the Bench for six months affected him mentally and emotionally, leaving him worried about how, as a recent graduate, it might affect his career prospects.

Startups are helping large companies encourage internal mobility through algorithm-based technology and improved in-house job boards. Such technology could counter findings by Gartner that suggested employees struggle to find internal openings and are not supported by bosses in those searches.

After spending more than $500 million in bonuses and wage hikes this year, Tyson Foods is giving its more than 80,000 hourly meatpacking employees a total of $50 million in year-end bonuses. CEO Donnie King said the company is also responding to employee needs by offering flexible scheduling and on-site health care services at little to no cost.

College graduates living in the country without legal permission encounter numerous barriers to graduate studies and employment, a survey by TheDream.US finds. Eighty-five percent of the nearly 1,000 graduates polled said they had jobs, but they were unable to qualify for licenses or other necessary certifications needed for their career.

The Great Resignation is less about recalcitrant, lazy workers and more of a structural crisis where retirements are up, married people are relying on their spouses, and the stresses of low-paying jobs and caregiving are causing millions of people to reprioritize work, writes SmartBrief's James daSilva. Individual managers can't solve those societal issues, but they can focus on training for new employees and new managers, pay more attention to remaining employees' growth and embrace the challenge of creating a better workplace, daSilva writes.

I was fascinated by today’s top story about “the Bench” at Infosys. Getting paid to sit and do nothing while you wait to be assigned to a project seems like a “dream job,” as some folks told one worker named Josh, but it’s not. I understood why Josh was so unsettled by the Bench.

You feel like your skills are going to atrophy. You can get discouraged -- “Why am I here if I’m not going to play?” I had bench players who became resentful and sluggish. They dragged through practice. They groused during games. Their parents grumbled about paying but not seeing their daughters on the field. Some quit.

But then there were other bench players. They understood their roles but wanted to get on the field. They used practice to work on their skills and games to learn and support. They watched the starters and asked questions. Their parents told me they were also working at home, after school or after practice and games.

Josh sat for six months until he was assigned. There’s no way I sit for six months. I’m taking a class or looking for contract work to help keep my skills sharp.

How can we encourage workers in our organizations to make good use of their “bench time”? They want to move up. They want to be in on certain projects. How can we encourage them to participate in professional development? How can we give them guidance so they know what they need to do to get on the proverbial field?

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