diff --git a/stresstests/src/test/java/org/neo4j/causalclustering/stresstests/Workload.java b/stresstests/src/test/java/org/neo4j/causalclustering/stresstests/Workload.java
index 4b0f6f69e7da..9b12ed6e6b8f 100644
--- a/stresstests/src/test/java/org/neo4j/causalclustering/stresstests/Workload.java
+++ b/stresstests/src/test/java/org/neo4j/causalclustering/stresstests/Workload.java
@@ -55,19 +55,48 @@ protected void doWork()
                 tx.success();
             } );
         }
-        catch ( InterruptedException e )
+        catch ( Throwable e )
         {
-            // whatever let's go on with the workload
-            Thread.interrupted();
+            if ( isInterrupted( e ) || isTransient( e ) )
+            {
+                // whatever let's go on with the workload
+                return;
+            }
+
+            throw new RuntimeException( e );
         }
-        catch ( TimeoutException | DatabaseShutdownException | TransactionFailureException e )
+    }
+
+    private boolean isTransient( Throwable e )
+    {
+        if ( e == null )
         {
-            // whatever let's go on with the workload
+            return false;
         }
-        catch ( Throwable e )
+
+        if ( e instanceof  TimeoutException || e instanceof DatabaseShutdownException ||
+                e instanceof TransactionFailureException )
         {
-            throw new RuntimeException( e );
+            return true;
         }
+
+        return isInterrupted( e.getCause() );
+    }
+
+    private boolean isInterrupted( Throwable e )
+    {
+        if ( e == null )
+        {
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        if ( e instanceof InterruptedException )
+        {
+            Thread.interrupted();
+            return true;
+        }
+
+        return isInterrupted( e.getCause() );
     }
 
     static void setupIndexes( Cluster cluster )