Featured on @StorylineReddit: November 7, 2025
He didn’t ask in a dark parking lot. He asked at work.
A small office. Shared air. Ordinary routines. Then a proposal delivered in calm, almost administrative language a “project,” a “textbook,” compensation offered, face excluded. On paper, it sounds procedural. In practice, the logistics drift elsewhere.
No paperwork. No departmental contact. Photos taken by him, in her home. The institutional framing is thin, but not nonexistent. Just enough to make someone pause instead of recoil.
This isn’t primarily a story about nudity. It’s about how boundaries are tested inside spaces that look familiar. How something can be presented as professional long enough to see whether it will be challenged. The moment stretches there not explosive, just slightly off-balance and what follows depends on whether that imbalance gets examined or absorbed.
The conflict begins with a request structured to appear legitimate. A coworker frames topless photos as part of a graduate academic project, offering payment and anonymity while retaining control over the camera, the setting, and the narrative of affiliation.
Rather than reacting emotionally, she verifies the premise. A direct call to the university reveals there is no official project of this kind and that formal processes would have been extensive. The gap between what was presented and what exists becomes concrete.
The decision follows quickly. She reports the interaction to her boss. HR is involved. Termination is immediate, documentation is filed, and the desk is cleared while she writes her statement. By the time she returns, someone else occupies the space.
The escalation is brief and procedural once it enters formal channels. What lingers is less the proposal itself than the ease with which it was made and the contrast between that ease and the swiftness of the response.
Text Version
My coworker asked me to pose topless for an “anatomy textbook”
EXTERNAL
My coworker asked me to pose topless for an “anatomy textbook”
Originally posted to Ask A Manager
TRIGGER WARNING: sexual harassment, fears of retaliation
MOOD SPOILER: outrageous, but positive end
Original Post Sept 28, 2018
I work part-time in a small sales office of about 10 people. About a month ago, one of my coworkers approached me about doing a project for his graduate program at a local university. It was for some sort of anatomy textbook or similar: it would be a photo of my breasts with my face not in the photo for the textbook. I would be compensated for the photos.
There were some red flags in his proposition — the photos would be taken by him, in my home, and he never presented me with official paperwork about it. I called the university and they assured me that whatever “project” he was working on was not through their university, as there would have been extensive paperwork, screening, photos professionally taken, etc., which was what I had figured in the first place, particularly for such a large university and for a master’s program.
My question is this: Is this a matter that I should bring up to my boss? Is this something that she needs to know about?
Update Oct 9, 2018 (11 days later)
I have to admit that I didn’t wait until I read your reply. I wrote the email to you on a night when both my boss and the coworker in question were not in the office, but my boss was in the next day, and I went in early and told her everything. The coworker in question was immediately terminated. I wrote a report for HR so he is considered non-rehirable for any future campaigns. His desk was packed while I was writing my report to HR and by the time I returned to the floor someone else had even taken his desk.
It was kind of emotionally taxing for me to respond to comments, so I didn’t, but I did read most of them. Our office is INCREDIBLY lax compared to most people’s, I would imagine, and my background is mostly in foodservice … so I was honestly very surprised at how many people had chimed in with “this is incredibly inappropriate of your coworker to APPROACH you about.” I think when one is used to very inappropriate work environments, these sorts of interactions don’t expressly present themselves as immediately inappropriate, if that makes sense? My last job was serving for a celebrity chef’s restaurant, and one of our servers was being regularly inappropriately TOUCHED by a dishwasher, and all that got him was a stern talking-to. I’m glad that your readers are in better environments, lol.
In regards to a certain comment thread, yes, I was concerned about retaliation – this coworker was not only a former Marine, but a knife fighting instructor – but as other people have commented, I think women in general are concerned about retaliation in our everyday lives, not just when someone we know is harassing us. At the end of the day, this clown couldn’t even put any damn effort into making his sleazy scheme smack of the official, so I think he is not likely to put any extra effort into tracking me down over his part-time job. But I am walking accompanied to transit every night, regardless.
Thanks so much for your advice, I do really appreciate it and I appreciate everyone’s comments. I hope that anyone who reads your site knows that they should feel comfortable reporting harassment when they experience it. I am very grateful that in this case things were dealt with very swiftly and justly, because I know that isn’t always the case.
Source
It begins with tone.
Not crude. Not overtly threatening. Calm, framed in academic language. A project. A textbook. Compensation. No face. The request is delivered as if professionalism itself could steady it.
The details, though, don’t quite settle. His camera. Her home. No documentation. No official contact. She calls the university. They explain there would have been paperwork, screening, professional photography. That answer lands plainly. There is no dramatic confrontation in that moment. Just information.
She comes in early the next day. She tells her boss everything. HR paperwork is written. His desk is packed while she is still finishing the report. When she returns to the floor, someone else is sitting there.
No speeches. No drawn-out meeting. Just removal.
From his side, the proposal relies on environment as much as language. A small, informal office. A colleague whose prior workplaces blurred lines so often that this one does not immediately register as extraordinary. The framing is careful enough to test the boundary without openly crossing it. If she dismisses it, it evaporates into “just asking.” If she accepts, the structure favors him.
Her hesitation is shaped by history, not confusion. In places where inappropriate conduct rarely triggers consequence, perception adjusts. What feels reportable shifts over time. So the turning point here is procedural rather than explosive: verify, disclose, document.
And then the aftermath narrows. Walking accompanied to transit. Considering the possibility of retaliation from someone physically trained. Relief sits next to vigilance.
The office acts decisively. That part is clear. The rest how often similar proposals remain unverified, unreported doesn’t resolve itself here.
