It seems social gaming giant Zynga is doing just about everything they can to keep morale up at their various offices, despite the recent rash of lawsuits, negative financial reports, and general public backlash against the company. In such troubled times, employees may start considering jumping ship, which has led Zynga to an interesting tactic.

According to Bloomberg, Zynga has been giving generous amounts of equity stock to its full-time employees in reaction to vastly lowered earnings this year.

An inside source (likely a former/current employee) said that this most recently happened “shortly after [Zynga's] earnings report on July 25,” marking the first time the entire company’s staff had been given that incentive.

Since most developers, administrative staff members, and executives who joined Zynga were paid in stock options prior to the company going public, their investments aren’t worth much now that those same shares are currently worth less than $3 apiece:

“It’s a proactive move to prevent mass exodus,” said Arvind Bhatia, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc. in Dallas. “It’s positive for morale and I think it’s the fair thing to do.”

But if things do turn around for Zynga, a lot of their employees will be a lot richer if/when its stock value recovers. Of course, that’s assuming that CEO Marc Pincus doesn’t ask for those stocks back right afterward.

Source: Bloomberg