The boss gave us some busywork to kill time, but it was actually meaningless.

busywork 是由形容词 busy（忙碌的）和名词 work（工作）组成的复合名词，字面意思是"让人忙碌的工作"，实际指"没有实际意义、纯粹为了打发时间而安排的琐碎工作"。