Employee Records not appearing in drop down selection menu

We have an employee database where employees are able to generate time-off requests to be approved by their manager and correspond with accounting information for PTO purposes. Requests are made using a form from a table that holds records of PTO requests, each new request adds a record to that table. 

Currently, when a user goes to edit the form, the drop down selection list signifies that it has found records (20 records, the amount of employee records) but the select options in the menu are blank? they are select-able and employee information does populate the subsequent fields once an option has been selected but I cannot get the records to actually appear in the drop down list. Typing anything in the box to filter, filters out all records. 

Before Selection:

After Selection (populates information):

At the field level for the table that the time-off table is referencing (employee name is a look up from the employee records table) I have selected the options that would allow this information to appear in drop down selection menus, but this doesn't seem to drive any change in the form: 
Any recommendations on where to go from here? Thank you in advance!