As uncle Ben once told Peter Parker, “with great power, comes great responsibility.” I feel that Walmart could have learned a thing or two from Uncle Ben. Walmart is one of the largest retailing organizations in the world, yet it failed to protect two of their loyal employees. Wando Evans, a 15 year Walmart veteran is now dead due to the Corona Virus and the lack of Walmart’s anticipation of the situation.
Wando Evans worked at Walmart in Evergreen Illinois for over 15 years. He was dearly loved and respected by his co-workers and family. When Mr Evans tried to reason with his managers to let him go home early because he was not feeling well, his plea fell on deaf ears. Instead, his managers continued to schedule Mr Evans to work, and failed to report Mr Evans announcement of having flu like symptoms. I believe this is were Walmart reached its tipping point and went from staffing the store to clearly avoiding and neglecting an employee request to stay at home.
In the ethical frameworks, there is one framework called Deontological ethics. Under this framework, an individual feels an obligation to complete their duty regardless of the outcome. This can be examined in the military when a solider takes an order from their superior and carries it out dutifully. I believe the manager in Walmart that was supervising Mr Evans failed to do his duty by not reporting the conditions that Mr Evans was explaining. The manager also failed to notify other employees that such situation had been brought managements attention and that further precautions should be taken.
Compared to other ethical frameworks, I believe Deontological works best because of obligations that are being fulfilled in a timely and orderly fashion. As we said earlier, unlike other ethical frameworks, deontological does not weight the precautions of future events due to current decisions. The only thing that matters is doing the right thing. So if Walmart had to shut down for a few days to make sure the store was properly sanitized, that would have been an acceptable outcome because it would have preserved the like of Wando Evan and his co-worker.
I believe that that manager supervising Wando Evans took the Theological approach when he refused to let Mr Evans go home. Under the Theological approach, the individual feels a strong sense of egoism and determines what would be better for the greater number of good. The manager was probably thinking about the other co-workers and how their obligations would become more difficult if he let Mr Evans go home early. What the manager failed to consider was that Mr. Evans could potentially be contaminated with COVID-19 and could become a greater threat to not only the manager but to other customers and employees in the store.
Lastly, I feel that Walmart as an organization could have taken a more Deontological approach to the COVID-19 epidemic. The idea that one of the worlds leading retailing stores could not properly provide proper protection equipment to their employees is terribly upsetting. The CDC had put strict regulations on how large retailers should manage customer social distancing and proper sanitation procedures, yet in court documents, many of these procedures were ignored or not complied with. Under the Deontological framework, Walmart should have made it their duty to protect their employees by providing proper equipment and listening to restrictions by the CDC, even if their bottom line was effected by these restrictions.
Armando's Blogg 
I definitely agree with your analysis, if Walmart didn’t have the proper social distancing procedures and sanitation in place or allow a sick coworker to go home during a global pandemic, then they deserve the lawsuits. I’m interested in hearing about what their reaction is when they are served with the complaint. I don’t know what they could say in their defense when there are strict regulations in place by the CDC and the state for PPE and other precautions. The fact that Walmart management doesn’t seem to be taking this pandemic seriously is certainly alarming.
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It becomes even more alarming when people are dying left and right. As of yesterday, the US has over 18,000 deaths and Mark Evans was one of them. This man just wanted to keep his job and now his family is fighting to get some closure from Walmart. These lawsuits can drag on for years but I’m also interested to see if the Evans family receives justice.
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A fantastic quote and very much true! With great power comes great responsibility! I wonder how much longer Walmart can last as humanity and business becomes much more ethically concerned each day. We’ve all seen companies that don’t perform 100% ethically, but Walmart is one of the lowest of the low . Even though so many people will still shop there, I do think that they are setting themselves up for failure. Walmart in general leads me to believe that many Business think it’s not profitable to treat their workers better, but I would immediately argue they are wrong in that belief. Many of our CEO’s are making over 100x the amount of their employees and therefore I don’t see a reason why they can’t give a little more. I understand the risk involved and valuable skillset CEO’s have, but who in the world needs THAT MUCH money?
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I agree. At what point have we made enough money that we can say “okay, we made it, lets help other make it too.”. Trust me I was just as surprised when I learned that Walmart wasn’t handing out proper PPE to their employees. These are the individuals who are risking their lives so that the corporate owners can have vacations in Aruba. I remember learning about the “Invisible Hand” and how its suppose to help those at the bottom, but I’ve yet to see it in action.
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I like how you compare your own approach in terms of ethical frameworks to the method that was actually done. I completely agree with you that a theological approach with self interest was taken- which has shown to be detrimental to the company because they’ve since caused the deaths of many employees. It’s hard to come to a conclusion with retail that is essential during this time, but taking preventative steps beforehand would have been a huge help, and now Walmart i reaping what the sow because of new health cautions being taken. Overall, Walmart has proven they once again don’t care about their employees and are willing to risk lives to make money, and you did an excellent job explaining this. Well done!
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I’am currently a worker for Wegmans. At the beginning of this pandemic we had little to no PPE. As the days went by, you began to see drastic changes in how we were operating within the store. Social distancing was implemented heavily. We were given mask and gloves and training on how to properly dispose of the mask when we were finished. Washing our hands became second nature and was done more routinely by everyone. Wegmans isn’t nearly as large as Walmart but they certainly did a great job of protecting their most valuable assets, their workers.
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I agree that Walmart not taking this pandemic seriously, along with the health of their employees, speaks volumes. They truly do deserve all the lawsuits they get. There is no excuse for their unethical decisions. I agree that a deotonological approach is the best one to make here because it’s about doing the right thing. It’s about putting your customers as well as your employees first. In order for your employees to take care of their customers, you need to take care of your employees. Or else, the business will fail. Every time.
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That is certainly true. I hope this is a lesson for Walmart and the the lives of those two employees doesn’t go in vain. Hopefully more regulation are put in place for these types of situations.
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