Less so than Oblivion and Fallout 3 so thats fine with me and after only 1 patch with more to come.
Of course, but the bugs are still pretty annoying. The worst thing so far is when you're trying to listen to someone, and then someone comes and interrupts you for some quest or something, and you can't hear either of them, and the only way to get them to repeat what they said is to load a save. That's happened to me about thrice now.
Subtitles.
I like to have subtitles on games and movies(English audio and English subtitles) just because stuff tends to drown the voices.
But the fact that you didn't call in sick speaks for your character!