The Categorical Imperative Formula Of Sam's Club

“Few formulas in philosophy have been so widely accepted and variously interpreted as Kant’s injunction to treat humanity as an end in itself”(Hill, 38). The categorical imperative formula I have chosen is the humanity formula. The humanity formula is the second formulation categorical imperative of the three formulas Kant come up with. This formulation states that we should never act in such a way that we treat humanity, whether in ourselves or in others, as means only. This formula also says that we should always treat others as an ends in itself. Kant believes when we treat others as merely as means to our discretionary ends, we are violating the humanity formula. The humanity formula states that we should never act in such a way that we
treat humanity, whether in ourselves or in others.
Act so that you treats humanity, in yourself or others as an end, and never as a merely as a means only; which means always treat people the way you want to be treated. Treating people as an object is moral problem because we are treating them as an object or not their worth. The formula is about respecting yourself and other people as a living beings.
The case I have chosen is how SAM's Club treat their employees as means only. I worked at SAM's Club for a year and the unethical behavior of the management and some associate was the reason why I left SAM's club. I am going to give some cases how Sam's Club treats their associates as means only. The first one, is after working at Sam's club for two months I realized that favoritism plays huge role. Sam's club treat some of their associates like royals and some like trash. They ask some of their associates to watch other associates, if they are using their phones or talking to other associates. At Sam's club the young associate are the ones who being treat
unfair. They allow their favorite associates to talk to each other, use their phones, take long breaks and do whatever they want. The second case is how Sam's club coach their associate over minor things which prevents you from moving up or transferring. They going to couch you if you do not finish your work at 9:30 at night, what makes the whole thing hard is that they only have about four to six people and one manger closing the whole store. When I finish my department, I had to go around and do other departments until everything in the store is finish. They don’t care if you have been working on long shift or if you have school word. When I asked for a day off because I had to study for finals, they would allow me to. They do not care how their associate feel. They care if you are sick or a family member is sick, they always accept you at work. They would gang up on you and blame other department’s problems on you. Well I was working I felt like as if they were using me us an object and not a human being with feelings. They were being unethical and treating their associate morally wrong. They were treating their associates as an objects.
According to Kant’s second formulation of the categorical imperatives is to treat humanity as an end itself.
Kant would say that the way SAM's Club is treating their associates is unethical. He would say that Sam’s Club is treating their associate as an object and means only. Kant believes that “a human being and generally every rational being exists as an end itself” (Immanuel Kant). In other word, you have to treat everyone as a human beings and not an objects. According to Kant, Sam's Club is violating the formula of humanity because they are taking their associates wroth as human beings. They tell people to do work on other departments when are done with their departments, that is unethical and they using their associates means only. Having associates work on long shifts and not going home when you are with you work is treating a person as mere means only. They are punishing other associates who finish their work when other associates wait until last minute to do their department work. Kant believes that if one does not finish his duty, other should not be punished for it. The thing Kant would disagree with is when Sam's Club ask other associates to watch their other associates that is unethical. I had many days where I have a manger come to be tell that I toke many breaks even when I did not even take one break. Other days, when I go to work after school and I have to all of work to do on my department they would call to do other works for other departments. They do
not care if their associates is exhausted as long as you get the work done. In conclusion, Sam’s club needs to treats their associates better. They need to stop treating the workers as merely means only. Like Kant said, “Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person, in the person of another, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means” (Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the metaphysis of morals). Kant believes that that rational beings can never be treated merely as means to ends. They must always be treated as ends themselves, which means we must always respect reason as a motive in all beings, including other people. Sam's Club need stop over working their associates. They need to treat as human being and as means only.
Evaluating the issue helped me understand the whole point of this essay. I think this theory is correct because you not treat other people like trash. We grow up being told that we cannot treat other people badly. That we have to treat other people the way we want to be treated, even if they treats us badly. I know that the Humanity formula does not rule out using people as means to our own ends, but the way Sam's Club is using the associates is unethical. It also help understand how the Kant’s humanity formula works and helped understand the whole point of the formula. We have to treat other people as ends itself. We cannot just treat them as an object, but as a human beings.