The internecine violence that has plagued Spanish Town for the past 14 months has forced several companies to institute staff exit strategies that include mapping out and teaching staff “safe routes” out of the old capital.

One bank was said to have arranged counselling sessions for traumatised workers, while another advises workers to check the news, then the manager to see if it’s safe to enter the town.

Managers were tight-lipped about their efforts and strategies, but could not hide the tension and fear of their employees, many of whom, according to one bank worker, can’t concentrate through the day, as they worry incessantly if they’ll make it out of the battle zone when it’s time to go home.

“When there is uncertainty and it seems as if there’s going to be unrest, we redeploy our staff,” Victoria Mutual Building Society (VMBS) branch manager Michael Bellamy told the Sunday Observer.

“I will let some of my staff members go to another branch, but the people that live within a certain radius of here will stay,” explained Bellamy, who pointed out that the policy, along with the practice of having daily all-staff prayer meetings at the start of each day were but two of several strategies employed by VMBS.

“We have other systems to cope, but I can’t share that with you,” he said, citing security and company privacy concerns.

The violence has taken its toll on commercial activity in the town, driving fear into the hearts and behaviour of customers and employees alike.

At about noon last Friday, the usual crunch time at Jamaican financial institutions, the familiar teller line at the VMBS Spanish Town branch was non-existent. The dozen or so customers inside were waiting to speak to customer service representatives, and they barely filled half the seats provided as they sat, comfortably watching the Olympics on television.

This is in stark contrast to the average VMBS branch, where long lines and long waits are the norm.

But the Spanish Town branch is not your normal VMBS. Located on Oxford Street in the St Catherine parish capital, the squalor and lawlessness that characterise Spanish Town – the zinc fence communities, the blue tarpaulin stalls and the army of handcart ‘motorists’ – end abruptly at the bank’s gates. These gates silently guard the bank, its staff’s cars and the well-manicured grounds.

On Friday, there was a distinct police presence throughout the town. On every street corner there were uniformed cops walking or patrolling on bicycles, and every few minutes truckloads of M16-carrying Moblie Reserve police could be spotted negotiating the narrow streets and lanes of the historic centuries-old town.

The nature of the violence in Spanish Town is thought to have roots equally deep in politics and basic criminality, as two gangs – One Order and Klansman – the former known to have ties with the Jamaica Labour Party and the latter to the People’s National Party, jostle murderously for control of the widespread extortion scam that informally regulates the markets and taxi stands in Spanish Town.

In July this year, One Order boss Oliver “Bubba” Smith was murdered in Kingston as he sat in a car linked to Central St Catherine member of parliament Olivia “Babsy” Grange. Since his burial on Monday, August 9, close to 20 people have been murdered, many in a suspected tit-for-tat spree being carried out by the rival gangs. Last Friday morning, the workers at VMBS were greeted with the news that the death toll had risen by three, despite a surprise visit to the town only hours before by minister of national security, Peter Philips, the day before.

The VMBS notice board holds team photos of the staff, items for sale, and a curious certificate, presented to the Spanish Town team at the building society’s staff picnic awards ceremony earlier this year.

“For being resilient in times of crisis”, they were congratulated by their peers islandwide. Amid the gloom overshadowing the town, it seemed well deserved.

The 23 men and women on staff, according to Bellamy, have stress levels of “nine on a scale of one to 10 – 10 being the worst”, since all 23 live outside the immediate Spanish Town area, and therefore face a terrifying commute to and from work everyday. Not just that, but each time there is a major flare-up of violence, the office has to be closed and employees evacuated. But while the workers are dedicated enough to come back to work the next day, the customers stay away.

“How many people did you see inside?” Bellamy asked rhetorically when questioned on the impact of the violence on his branch. “The customers are not happy, and the staff aren’t happy either.”

It’s the same sort of situation at the Spanish Town branch of the Insurance Company of the West Indies (ICWI). There, also, two employees who requested anonymity confirmed that the stress levels created by working within the violence-prone area was abnormally high, both for workers and customers.

“Of course I’m scared, I’m scared every day I have to come here because they do things like drive-by shootings, and you never know who next it will be or when or where,” said one employee who lives elsewhere in St Catherine and takes a taxi to work each day. That employee later admitted to feeling safe once inside the environs of the office, and to not wanting to be forced out of the job because of the violence.

The other employee, who has worked with ICWI in Spanish Town for four years, told the Sunday Observer that on occasions, when the violence flares and the shootings start, she has had to walk miles out of her way to get a taxi, a stressful but necessary journey to get home.

“This round is the worst it’s ever been, and since this year we’ve had to close up and go home several times.”

At the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) on Wellington Street, assistant manager Paulette Sterling politely declined to comment in the absence of regional manager Elroy Flowers. But it was clear that in contrast to VMBS, this branch was bustling with activity. A closer look revealed, however, the near absence of teller lines and that the majority of the customers inside were waiting to be served by remittance agents.

That branch opens each day at 8:30 am and closes at 2:30 pm, except on Fridays when hours are extended to 4:30 pm. One window that never closes until 5:00 pm every day is the Money Transfer window.

Persons inside the JNBS admitted to feeling safe inside the confines of the institution, and to getting nervous only outside, when faced with the volatility of the community. Safety, however, is relative, and as the Sunday Observer left JNBS, a walk through the parking lot shattered any illusion of security. Less than 10 feet away a chain-link fence separates the late model Hondas and Mitsubishi sedans from the raw sewage and zinc fences of the poverty-stricken community of Chambers Lane. A detachment of police dressed in blue fatigues and carrying high-powered weapons was shouting and searching youths, shoving their faces against the hot pavement and against zinc fences. That scene brought home the reality that Spanish Town is too small to be safe when the violence starts.

At the showroom of a major furniture retailer in town, one employee cautiously shared anecdotes of working in the town, nervous that the slightest comment could invite retribution from a source she could not identify more positively than “de criminal dem”. Sales there, she said, had “fallen tremendously”, mainly due to the ongoing violence, but due in part too, she said, to the general congestion of the town.

“Of course, we are scared to death! When the riots start it affects the branch because we can’t complete our regular hours, we have to lock up early and run home. And the customers are afraid to come too. Do you blame them? This place hard to get in and out of on a regular day, so no one wants to be here when the violence starts.”

Most of the 20 staff there come from communities around Spanish Town, but some commute from Portmore, Kingston, and as far away as Bog Walk and Linstead. That company has an unofficial violence contingency plan – when the shooting starts, the employees rally to bolster the display windows, but leave the door closed but unlocked so customers know they’re open and safe inside.

As was the case at JNBS, the furniture store employee said she was not scared once inside the building, because she said, “they (the gunmen) don’t actually trouble us, but it’s dangerous being around the area when things are going on”.