At a company Christmas party in Tampa, Florida, a business surprised its employees with a special bonus: stock options valued between $7,000 and $56,000.

Each of SynDaver Labs' 100 employees received between 1,000 and 8,000 shares of the company's stock based on performance, according to WTSP. The company estimated the stock values would only rise once the company makes an initial public offering in the coming years.

“You want your employees to be fully invested in the company,” the company's president, Chris Sakezles, told WTSP. “If everyone is an owner, they’ll do that much more to work and push the company forward internationally. Across the world, people are leaner and meaner and smarter. If you don’t adapt, you won’t survive.”

The gift caught employees by surprise.

“It was so much more than I thought it would be,” recently hired employee Brit Eddy told WTSP.

Jeff Wells, who has been with SynDaver Labs for two years, said the gift was “fantastic."

"Fantastic. That’s all I have to say,” he told WTSP. “I’m gonna invest it right back into SynDaver."

SynDaver Labs, founded in 2004, creates synthetic body parts for the medical service industry. Its synthetic bodies are used in medical studies and surgical simulations.

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