Manager who doesn’t manage me is policing my lunch break, even though he takes late lunches himself

Hey, just wanted to share a weird situation that happened at work today.

So I’ve been working at this firm for about 9 months now. We don’t have fixed lunch hours, everyone goes anytime between 12–3 depending on their workload and team culture. My own manager (who’s currently on leave) usually takes their lunch break from 2 to 3, and I follow a similar schedule.

Anyway, today I found out that a manager I’m not even assigned to apparently noticed me coming back from lunch at 3 and assumed I had taken a 2-hour lunch. He didn’t ask me directly but instead told my colleague to speak to me on his behalf. His logic? “She came back at 3, so she must have left at 1.” (Even though I left at 2, as usual.)

The funny part? This same manager has taken lunches at 2:30, 3, even 4 PM before and he admitted that to my colleague during the conversation. But his reasoning was: “Yeah, I’ve gone late too, but I’m telling you because I don’t speak to her directly, if I do, she might go and complain to her manager.”

So basically, I’m being policed for following the same lunch timing that’s accepted across the firm and even practiced by him just because he doesn’t want to speak to me directly. 🙃

Just wanted to vent. Is it just me or does this come off super petty and hypocritical?