Here's a summary for ep. 2:
The employees were sick of Watanabe�s attitude because he was not familiar with how to run an inn but acted like a know-it-all instead of accepting their help and experience. He was arrogant, rude to employees (working them hard but not knowing their names), disrespectful and abusive to his wife, and grossly lazy and irresponsible. So they rebelled against him by �abandoning� their jobs.
Watanabe did a complete turnaround once he had the glowing blue ball experience. He became kind and affectionate to his wife and was determined to work really hard to make a go of the inn.
The old fellow (the clerk who told him he did things wrong) did not want to participate in the job abandonment but threw in the towel when he finally saw that nothing was going to work with Watanabe holding onto his old attitude.
You�ll recall, however, that the main instigator was the van driver (who was probably more arrogant than Watanabe). It seemed as though the other workers sometimes wanted to help but were afraid of the van driver (was he the manager?). Remember when the wife asked where the large broom was and the little guy piped up with the answer, only to have the van driver jump all over him for helping out the wife?
The pivotal point of change for the girls and the old clerk was when Watanabe�s and his wife�s hard work had softened the heart of the guest (Tajima (sp?))--when the wife did the pitiful geisha with the karaoke routine. Watanabe, though trying his hardest, was humbled by his inability to handle everything without the staff and to please the guest.
Tajima's experience at the inn was so woeful that it had gone full circle and become heart warming because of Watanabe's trying so hard to please, yet failing so miserably. Watanabe was broken at that moment.
Remember, the workers were watching all this and they realized that Watanabe had been both humbled and had succeeded in softening the guest. At this point one of the girls did a gesture of lightly �slapping� the van driver�s face and then the girls quickly scurried away from him. (I took that as a gesture that they were leaving the van driver�s side of the job abandonment issue and were going to rally to Watanabe's aid.)
Then when Tajima took over as the �Chief Manager� to calm down the partygoers, the old clerk and the girls were right there to carry on, once again dedicated members of the team.
The final rejection for the van driver was when he was dressed up in the deer suit to entertain the partygoers and everybody ignored him in favor of the incredibly funny �chief manager,� Tajima.