[This story is originally from 2013, and while describing it for a comment on another sub, I was informed of this sub. As such, I de-militarized a lot of the terminology in the original post and returned most of it back to the actual terms. Might've missed a couple, though]

At one point in the military, I was in between major postings (finished the training program, but was waiting for reassignment to a regular station), and was working a cleaning gig in the admin building as a holding station in the mean time.

I was in a technical field that was eternally undermanned [Navy Nuke], so we had decent (for the military) money incentives to sign on and reenlist, and often were exempted from a lot of the duties other servicemembers had to deal with because of our required schedule. The admin department was made up of personnel who were... not. Naturally, this engendered some resentment from them.

So we'd show up at 7am, clean the building for 2-3 hours, literally run out of things to clean because there were around 5 times as many people cleaning it as it needed, and then have to "clean" for another 5-6 hours (plus lunch) until the "end of the normal work day". The admin guys in charge of us every morning ordered "If you don't have something to do, ask us and we will find something. Don't just pretend to clean."

So we did. We cleaned until there wasn't anything left to clean, and then asked Admin guy [iirc an LS] what else we could do.

And, invariably, we were told something along the lines of "I don't know, find something."

And so the Commanding Officer (CO) eventually noticed that we didn't really have anything productive to do after 10am. Because of that, in public, he ordered the admin guys "If the nukes don't have anything left to do for the day, then send them home. There's no point in keeping them here unnecessarily."

And the next day, we showed up, cleaned for three hours, and then asked what else needed doing.

"I don't know, count the holes in the ceiling tiles." (literally, that was what Admin guy said)

So, we did. We knew it was bullshit, but it was an order.

Naturally, being on ordered activity, we didn't try to hide what we were doing. Including around 11am when the CO walked past one of us staring at the ceiling with a pencil and a sheet of paper, obviously counting something. CO asked what we were doing. "Oh, Petty Officer so-and-so ordered us to count holes in the ceiling tiles when we asked what else we could help with, sir!" my coworker answered earnestly. CO asks "How long does it usually take you guys to clean the building?" Coworker answers with enthusiastic forthrightness, "We usually have to start asking for things to do around 10am, sir!"

CO not happy. CO very not happy.

Not only did that mean that he was dealing with Insubordination of at least one Admin guy, but the nature of Admin guy's order started into Hazing territory, which was regulated to hell. COs had been canned in recent years for Hazing incidents. And it was being done almost literally in his face.

The next day, we cleaned until we ran out of things for most of us to clean. We ask Admin guy what else we can help with. Admin guy answers "I don't know, find something to do!" So we do.

CO leaves his office at 12, heading to lunch. He walks past my coworker (same one he'd talked to the day before) wiping a wall with a rag. Coworker greets CO, "Good morning, sir!" CO stops, sees coworker. Sees coworker apparently only looking like he's cleaning. CO very, very not happy.

We go to lunch, get back, and get told to go home. It was no longer an issue after that :).