How do I show only employees on left nav [x axis] when they don't have any events?

It is not any different from how you pass events. Since you do not have events yet, give NULL for the startTime and endTime.

Example:
var groups = new Array();
var events = new Array();
events.push({
name: name,
eventId: eventId,
personId: personId,
personName: personName,
startTime: null,
endTime: null,
description: desc,
allDay: false,
eventType: eventType
});
var managerGroup = {
name: "Managers",
groupId: "200",
events: events
};

groups.push(managerGroup);

how do we change x-axis and y axis for basic view?