Cabin P/A''...Thank you cabin crew for all your hard work...''

[TightSlot]

...they are told to do it...

Ignore it - I do. My employer has loads of sensationally stupid management ideas, dreamed up by people whose combined knowledge of how work in an aircraft cabin is actually done wouldn't fill a used sick bag.

The wonderful thing about flying is that once the doors are closed, they can't look over your shoulder any more - it's your cabin (well the Captains' actually, but you know what I mean) so you can get on with the important business of doing what people really want, not what some teenage blue-flame in marketing imagines that they want.