Harsh or not, a big thank you to Heartymeatballs for sticking up for his colleagues at the other side of the flight deck door. What he said certainly resinated with me. Whether it was reflective of ZFT, I cannot say.
In actual fact, I do occasionally ponder whether cabin crew are actually primarily in a safety related role. I'm allowed to though because I am trained crew and i guess I know what I am talking about.
Each time I question whether i really am a safety professional I quickly realise that actually, I am. A lot of passengers believe that the safety role of cabin crew extends merely to the safety demonstration on a good day and an emergency on a bad day. But who do you think checks the inventory and serviceability of safety and emergency equipment? Who thoroughly searches an aircraft to maintain security? Who makes sure the cabin is 'secure' for take off and landing and prepared for an emergency/evacuation during these critical stages? Thats right, when we secure the cabin, we aren't making up rules and regs to make life hard for you. We are making sure that luggage is placed well under seats so that they don't fall into the aisle and exits, that laptops are stowed away so they don't become projectiles etc etc. Essentially making the cabin more survivable.
Who checks on the welfare of flight crew including training to deal with the incapacitation of one of them? Who ensures fire prevention through strict rubbish/gash collection, stowage and toilet checks?
Who is trained to spot three different types of icing on the wings and through their experience of working onboard an aircraft can actually identify any unusual noises, sensations and smells?
Who is trained to an high standard of first aid and tested on this regularly?
Those are all safety related duties and many of those duties are routine and not directly involved with an emergency or incident. When i rationalise this way and when I take my yearly exams and watch/read/listen to case studies on recurrent/refreshers where cabin crew have made a vital difference it hits home that we are indeed there primarily for safety and that makes me proud to do the job that I do.
There are crew blogs that get on their soap box and call us doctors/firefighters etc and I cringe at these. We are not, we are cabin crew and we have our own job specification and we do not need the specification of other careers. Equally, I cannot standby and not say anything when my job/profession is misinterpreted (putting it politely) by someone who doesn't know much about the role. Why? Because he isn't trained and ultimately, thats why you need cabin crew on board your flight in a safety capacity. If not, do you really think you would have crew at all in economy these days?