Excerpt: Unscheduled absenteeism climbed to a five-year high of 2.4 percent in 2004--up from 1.9 percent in 2003--but it may not mean that employees are sick more frequently, according to the 14th annual CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey. 'There is a trend, and there has been for years, of people calling in at the last minute even though they knew weeks in advance that they needed to be away,' said Lori Rosen, CCH workplace analyst and author of HR Networking: Work- Life Benefits (CCH Inc., 2004).