Phrase used by sadistic managers (particularly in IT) to describe any
moment of spare time their employee(s) might have.
The implication is that the employee is like an old mainframe computer, and should be put to work for every second of the
day or else corporate value is
lost.
Boss: "Hey,
Bob has some spare cycles, he can do these 29
extra tasks."
Bob: <grunts incoherently and shuffles closer to complete mental breakdown>