Sabrina I agree with you, especially the job aspect.
The one thing I have done is put the responsibility on the student to contact me if they are not going to be there. I give lecture points and in-class activity points, and let them know if you do not contact me, you will loose both the lecture points and in-class activity points. If they do contact me they will receive the lecture points and they have to write a one page summary over the lessons they missed. This works great, over 90% of my students contact me.
