I can't reply to the main comment for some reason, but I think we actually see him softening over the course of the first season, and as mentioned, his job might have something to do with it. Neither Bobby nor his mother seem shocked by him slapping Bobby, and in FWWM the only time we see Briggs he is reading from the…

Diamond Dogs by Bowie. Didn't really work out the way he planned — a musical based on Orwell's 1984 — but it's still amazing.