When I was training, something of a long time ago, I recall one afternoon where the controller at the barely regional airport have three of us orbiting in the circuit so he could give a scheduled flight a straight in approach - pretty dumb at what was essentially a training field.
I'm with The oddone - never orbit - bluntly - how is that aligning with the circuit direction?
Equally I've just come back from a French airfield that mixes GA, parachuting, gliding, ULMs and radio models all in the same space - talking becomes really quite important when the tower is not manned!