VillWill
In Ryanair, and perhaps most airlines, the pilots and cabin crew conduct a joint briefing after their own specific ones before travelling to the aircraft together. Apart from the obvious CRM benefits of this approach, most airlines don't allow the cabin crew the authority to have pax on board without the captain.
Aer Lingus pilots and cc brief separately and travel to the aircraft separately, with no joint briefing taking place. In the captain and F/O's absence, the senior cabin crew member has the authority to evacuate the aircraft if necessary.
I don't know how Ryanair pilots manage to also have STD-45 check-in times, prepare the flight thoroughly, manage to be at the aircraft pre-boarding and still depart on time. Perhaps their pre-flight briefing procedures are more streamlined than at Aer Lingus, or they have better ops support.
What I do know is that the chaotic nature of vast amounts of paperwork and the poor IT facilities, added to the inconvenient location of the briefing room means it simply isn't possible to report at STD-45, prepare the flight and be at the aircraft prior to boarding. To hold the boarding til that time would involve late departures.
As an engineer, villwill, you should be aware that the on-board prep. for an Airbus is, in most instances, easily accomplished within the 20 minutes stipulated by our SOPs. To say it's a safety issue is rubbish.
What I am curious to know is why exactly you think it looks bad?