At Air NZ, the FSM position was "enhanced" a couple years ago.
From 115k a year 'Inflight Service Directors' who simply served as FA1 on the flight and had no other responsibilities, they went to 95k a year 'Flight Service Managers', who in addition to being FA1, 'manage' a team of ten or so crew, some of whom they might not fly with for years - calling them at home on their days off or on sick leave to "check their welfare", representing the company at meetings when you go over the absence limit, "coaching" them and developing their "career plans", etc. The amount of paperwork is obscene and the attrition rate has skyrocketed.
I'm not sure if the FSM role at Virgin has any ground responsibilities, but offer this info as something the VS FSMs may be able to "look forward" to. Funnily enough, the latest rumour around the blocks is that the NZ FSMs may be taking more of a ground role, and the ISC (our version of the CSS) will "run" the flight..
