Nebraska woman seeks answers after being laid off from federal job at FDA

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – A Nebraska woman says she’s still in shock after being terminated from the FDA in mid-February. Federal layoffs have been making headlines for weeks as the new Department of Government Effecicency or ‘DOGE’ works to shrink the federal workforce by any means necessary.

Federal worker, Lindsey Nielsen, said the targeted layoffs were a hit she and her colleagues saw coming. They were still in disbelief and devastated that their positions at the FDA were coming to a swift end.

Just two weeks later, Nielsen said she and colleagues at her office received a letter notifying them of their termination as probationary employees at the FDA.

“That means you’re either newly hired to your role or you got a promotion to a higher role with more responsibility,” Nielsen said.

Nielsen, who holds a PhD in Microbiology, started her job at the FDA as a Scientific Reviewer in 2023 and worked remotely from her home in Wood River.

Just one month before receiving the letter of termination she was promoted from ‘Senior Staff Fellow’ to ‘Microbiologist.’

Even more shocking? The reason for the layoff was listed as ‘poor performance.’

At the end of 2024, she received one of the highest ratings in her office and the highest ratings one could receive at the FDA in a performance review.

“I have no disciplinary actions, no negative anything on my record,” she added. “So it was a complete surprise.”

She was just one of the hundreds of laid-off FDA employees affected during the Trump Administration’s attempt to shrink the federal workforce.

“But what’s actually happening is a marring of people’s reputations, an inaccurate look into their actual performance, and a misunderstanding of what the federal agency actually is.”

Barely a week following the massive layoffs, hundreds of employees received a call notifying them of reinstatement, including all the employees at Nielsen’s office.

All, except her.

“There were people that were reinstated that had less tenure than me and some that had more tenure,” Nielsen said. “I did have the highest valuations of all of us, and I was a 10-point veteran hired under the veteran preference– so the idea is maybe there were some reasons that that difference was the reason I didn’t get a callback.”

She said she reached out to Senator Deb Fischer’s office for help, and that response said in part:

Now, Nielsen said she is speaking with lawyers to get a better grasp of what’s happening to her and others, and whether or not the firings are legal.

Nielsen admits she doesn’t believe the layoffs are a reflection of the FDA’s attitude toward its employees. Rather, she thinks it is an open display of the government putting pressure on federal agencies to make decisions that they are not sure are legal.

“I’m concerned about this because I think that it sets the tone that we can do illegal terminations at the federal government level, which might trickle down into the private sector.”

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