Much like unpaid internships, this is also a method to prevent anyone who is not independently wealthy from applying, so they can fill the department with the same people already benefiting from the current system and allow them to design one that benefits them even further.
No one that this department is ostensibly built to serve can afford to work on it, so who is it really (clearly) for?
Listen to a record, read (books, comics, articles, anything), walk, watch TV, cook, text a friend, maybe even play a level of Portal or a word game, or just lie down if that’s the mood.