Mr Ex sounds like my kind of boss....my strength was how hard I worked. It's good to work for a boss who doesn't suffer slackers. :)
Amen to that...a boss with no backbone may as well not be a boss at all. You can be friendly, but you can't be FRIENDS. A lot of guys (and gals, too, of course, lol) have a hard time separating the two.
I'll take a hardass for a boss any day over someone who continually does whatever they can to avoid "being mean". Some folks won't respect you and do what they're supposed to until they know you mean business, in my experience. That being said, I'm glad I don't have his job, lol! My job is hard enough! (I'm a SAHM now).