Two studies investigated the cognitive categorization of absences by managers. In study 1, managers produced absence patterns for hypothetical employees who were labeled as having excellent, typical, uncontrollable, and controllable absence-prone attendance records. In study 2, managers rated the reliability of employees with absence patterns like those found in study 1. Study I found the distinction between excellent and absence-prone employees was related mainly to the total days absent and absence-episode parameters of prototypical absence records. The controllability distinction affected the proportions of absences reported as excused or adjacent to scheduled days off Study 2 obtained results generally consistent with study 1 butfound that the adjacency manipulation produced the hypothesized results only for experienced managers.