Why does the army keep people at work when there is nonthing to do?

I'd really like to see what your 026, weapons gauging, TMDE, service compliance, and repair parts management looks like. Counseling, TA50 inventories, 10% inventories, shortage annexes complete, class A inspections, board preparation? When was the last time your first line, Section Sergeant, or Platoon Sergeant trained you on a basic soldier skill or had a no notice roll out?

I hear soldiers constantly looking for time to do SSD....

Candidly, there is no way in God's green earth a 91series soldier should ever be bored. Especially with the joy of two level maintenance.

We had some maintenance teams that damn near slept in the motorpool just to stay two weeks behind (meaning they never got caught up). You need to go to a Heavy BCT or a Stryker BCT. You'll get your money's worth.

When I was being kept late I worked on my college courses or went to the gym. It may be your leaderships decision to stay late, it's your decision to be unproductive.
Get promoted and be the leader who sends people home when the work is done.

It's just bad leadership and possibly a toxic one. There is absolutely no reason why Soldiers should be sitting on their butts when there was nothing to do for the past XX hours when there was nothing to do. That there can be an IG complaint if you have Soldiers miss meals. This is the type of stuff the reason why re-enlistments are down and morale is low. I let my guys go to the gym (place of duty) or handle personal stuff but I tell them to stand by there phones until 1700 and stay in uniform. That's IF everything is complete. Most of the time, I'll let them off early. Sometimes, there are tasks that can wait until the next day if the calendar is all white space. Although, you are a Solider 24/7.