Current and former employees at Burning Man, an annual festival in a Nevada desert, said work conditions are so poor and toxic it has led to several workers committing suicide.
According to a report by Salon.com, seven Burning Man employees have died by suicide between 2009 and 2015.
Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas, a psychologist and the lead of the Workplace Task Force for the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, told the outlet that the number is shockingly high.
‘To give you a benchmark, in a community of 1,000 people we would expect one suicide death in one decade,’ she said.
Salon spoke with numerous current and former employees who blamed the high suicide rate on dangerous and stressful work conditions, alleged mistreatment by management and unfair pay.
Former Burning Man staffer Caleb Schaber committed suicide in 2009, two years after he organized a protest accusing the company of unfair treatment to workers
Several current and former workers detailed dangerous and stressful work conditions, alleged mistreatment by management and unfair pay. Pictured above is participants at last year’s Burning Man festival
Many workers said toxic and dangerous work conditions on the playa, where the festival takes place, is contributing to employees committing suicide
‘They don’t help out the workers that are injured, quite often, and they just try to get them to work for the most by giving them the least and then discard them,’ former Burning Man staffer Caleb Schaber during a protest outside the company’s San Francisco headquarters in February 2007.
‘They seem to feel that it’s OK to exploit workers like they’re some kind of resource that’s just there to take and not help out. They’re a multi-million dollar corporation that has franchises, and they’re not taking care of their workers.’
Schaber worked as a full-time employee for Burning Man in 2003 after working as a photojournalist in Iraq and Afghanistan. He eventually quit Burning Man but continued to volunteer at the festival and fight for worker’s right.
Ryan Brown was also an employee at Burning Man and committed suicide days after he was fired
Two years after staging the protest, Schaber committed suicide. Friends and former co-workers told the outlet they believe the way Schaber was treated by the company after challenging its labor practices contributed to his suicide.
‘He just wanted to be paid a fair day’s wage, and he wanted the crews that he worked with to be paid the same,’ said a staffer who declined to give their name. ‘He wanted it to resemble a community and a job at the same time.’
Ridge Arterburn said she thinks ‘being ostracized’ from Burning Man’s Department of Public Works ‘is very painful’, but added that Schaber was ‘troubled’ before his death.
According to employees, suicide is so prevalent among those who work at the playa, the name for where the festival is held, that the employee manual includes a section dedicated to the deceased.
There is also a memorial in the Department of Public Works’ saloon at Burning Man. Arterburn said a dozen names are on the memorial, a majority of them workers who died by suicide.
Ricardo Romero, another employee, told Salon that from 2013 to 2014 three of his colleagues killed themselves.
One of those was Ryan Brown, 40, who died in 2014 shortly after he was fired by management. Romero said that before Brown’s death his friend had gotten ‘more and more distressed’ and there were concerns he ‘would become violent with his wife’.
Romero said Brown was fired, although it’s not clear why, and Brown allegedly went on a drug and alcohol bender and was arrested after reportedly driving a car through a hotel lobby. A few days after that incident he was found dead in his hotel room, according to Salon. His death was ruled suicide.
‘In years past, I had friends kicked off of playa or the worksite, and you can kind of tell when managers involved in this process are looking very stern, serious and looking over,’ Romero said.
‘What they do is basically just toss you off the site. They give you no compensation, and they basically tell you you’re on your own . . . a lot of times they are people who aren’t getting paid or they are getting paid very little.’
Romero said it can be ‘a very traumatic situation’ for employees.
Ricardo Romero, another employee, told Salon that from 2013 to 2014 three of his colleagues killed themselves. Pictured are workers putting up equipment before the festival
Other workers said people were fired if they complained about the work conditions to management. Some of the larger art pieces and camps require extensive coordination before the Burning Man event starts
The festival takes place in a remote desert in Nevada called Black Rock Desert
Burning Man attracts thousands of people, including a number of celebrities
‘At (the) point (that Brown died), suicide was a problem,’ he added. ‘It can be a traumatic experience for people just to leave there on their own will after their contract is over let alone to be fired and separated from a million people who you feel accept you.’
Romero said he doesn’t blame management for Brown’s death but thinks they could have done more to help his friend in his time of need.
‘I think, in a sense, every suicide that has happened is related to the work,’ he said. ‘They may not all be exactly caused by it, but it’s all related.’
Eric Close is another former worker who killed himself. An employee who didn’t want to be named said Close may have had an opioid problem, but was also under a lot of stress at work.
‘I wasn’t sure when the problem developed, but I remember him being stressed out working for (Burning Man), saying that he didn’t feel like he was earning money to do what he (wanted to be) doing because he was always working,’ she said.
A spokesman for Burning Man did not comment on the suicides directly, but told Salon in a statement that ‘worker safety is paramount to Burning Man and we are exceptionally proud of the extensive resources we provide to staff’.
‘Burning Man’s medical resources at the event also include a state-licensed urgent care facility and six satellite first-aid stations, mental health support services, and on-site emergency air transport,’ spokesman Jim Graham added. ‘We also have our Black Rock Rangers and People Operations teams on site to support staff in need of mental health resources.”
Employees at Burning Man, however, are painting a different picture telling Salon that pay disparities were a top complaint among workers. Reportedly some volunteers were not paid at all, and others received low wages.
Several females with the company told the outlet that they made less than their male counterparts.
‘Yes, women are treated different there,’ Arterburn said. ‘Many times … qualified women are overlooked for positions … Then have to fight and say, look, in the real world here’s my certifications. Women are paid less than men. I know this from hearing what people make.’
An aerial view of how large the Burning Man festival is. This year the event takes place from August 25 to September 3
Pictured are participants at the Burning Man festival in August 2007
On the last day of the event, a burning man effigy is burned as participants gather around it
Arterburn said she volunteered with Burning Man for six years but was asked in 2015 not to return.
Romero said he started as an unpaid intern, but was later offered $15 an hour. According to 2016 tax filings, upper management made between $150,000 to $200,000 a year.
‘I never asked for much money, kept my head down, kept my mouth shut, respected the authority,’ he said. ‘Over the years, I just kept on seeing so many of my co-workers getting fired for complaining about worker treatment. I’d hear things like, “That person got fired because they stuck up for someone or called out some abuse that they witnessed.”’
He said in 2014 he contacted a labor lawyer because he had had enough of it and started talking to workers about forming a union. In April 2017 he said he was ‘uninvited’ to return to Burning Man. It would have been his eight year working there.
Romero said he was unfairly let go because he tried to form a union. The company said in a statement that he was not called back to work for Burning Man because his ‘temporary employment expired’.
‘The only reason I got fired was because I talked back to management and brought up issues to how workers were treated, how we were informed and how the company supported us and cared about us,’ he said. ‘As a laborer, I was in good standing.’
Despite instance that Romero was not fired over trying to organize a union, the company was forced to issue an apology, hire him pack and pay him a settlement. Romero said their willingness to settle proves what he said.
One worker was even severely injured at Burning Man and is permanently disabled. Former employee Kelli Hoversten had volunteered as a Burning Man Ranger in 2014 and had been assigned to protect the burning man effigy on the last day of the festival when a festivalgoer shined a laser hitting her in her eye.
Hoversten said she was left blind in her left eye because of it. Burning Man said lasers have since been banned from the festival.
Over the years, Burning Man has become a popular festival drawing out power figures like Tesla CEO Elon Musk, actress Susan Sarandon, rapper Diddy and his girlfriend Cassie, models Karlie Kloss and Cara Delevingne and singer Katy Perry.
This year, the festival takes place from August 25 to September 3 in the Black Rock Desert.