Hi rachel welcome to PPrune from a CC member who loiters in this forum. It gives me perspective from the other side of my operation.
The role of CC in the eyes of the CAA is
totally safety. In their eyes we can sit down for the whole flight other than to adress safety related issues.
Our employers however have a different view. Depending on your carrier we are on board to give a certain standard of service on a legacy/flag carrier.
They don't like us sitting down waiting for the very rare (thankfully) evacuation/decompression/fire/medical to come along. The common safety issues such as turbulance/cabin secure we can handle in a few minutes so in our employers eyes we are expensive for the rest of the time unless we are doing something else.
In the loco sector that is sales, sales and more sales to boost company profits. I know I am an SCCM for easyjet.
If I don't drive my crew/motivate the pax to achieve this I get hauled in to explain myself. The never ending PA's are part of this
I agree the pax do "tune out" sometimes and cannot/do not distinguish between sales and safety PA's in flight.
Maybe we should have a better system......any suggestions?