diff --git a/api/v1/controllers/subjects.js b/api/v1/controllers/subjects.js
index b68ec4cdc8..58b59646b0 100644
--- a/api/v1/controllers/subjects.js
+++ b/api/v1/controllers/subjects.js
@@ -36,7 +36,8 @@ const sampleStoreFeature =
                   require('../../../cache/sampleStore').constants.featureName;
 const jobType = require('../../../jobQueue/setup').jobType;
 const jobWrapper = require('../../../jobQueue/jobWrapper');
-const WORKER_TTL = 30000;
+const jobSetup = require('../../../jobQueue/setup');
+const WORKER_TTL = 1000 * jobSetup.ttlForJobsSync;
 const ZERO = 0;
 
 /**
diff --git a/config.js b/config.js
index 2912f52b7f..19cc35bb0b 100644
--- a/config.js
+++ b/config.js
@@ -68,7 +68,8 @@ const replicaConfigLabel = 'REPLICAS';
 // an array of read-only data base URLs
 const readReplicas = configUtil.getReadReplicas(pe, replicaConfigLabel);
 
-const DEFAULT_JOB_QUEUE_TTL_SECONDS = 3600;
+const DEFAULT_JOB_QUEUE_TTL_SECONDS_ASYNC = 3600;
+const DEFAULT_JOB_QUEUE_TTL_SECONDS_SYNC = 25;
 
 // default set to 30 minutes
 const DEFAULT_JOB_REMOVAL_DELAY_SECONDS = 1800;
@@ -87,7 +88,10 @@ const prioritizeJobsFrom = configUtil.csvToArray(pe.PRIORITIZE_JOBS_FROM);
 const deprioritizeJobsFrom = configUtil.csvToArray(pe.DEPRIORITIZE_JOBS_FROM);
 
 // set time to live for "kue" jobs
-const JOB_QUEUE_TTL_SECONDS = pe.TTL_KUE_JOBS || DEFAULT_JOB_QUEUE_TTL_SECONDS;
+const JOB_QUEUE_TTL_SECONDS_ASYNC = pe.TTL_KUE_JOBS_ASYNC
+  || DEFAULT_JOB_QUEUE_TTL_SECONDS_ASYNC;
+const JOB_QUEUE_TTL_SECONDS_SYNC = pe.TTL_KUE_JOBS_SYNC
+  || DEFAULT_JOB_QUEUE_TTL_SECONDS_SYNC;
 
 // set time interval for enableQueueStatsActivityLogs
 const queueStatsActivityLogsInterval = 60000;
@@ -233,7 +237,8 @@ module.exports = {
   checkTimeoutIntervalMillis: pe.CHECK_TIMEOUT_INTERVAL_MILLIS ||
     DEFAULT_CHECK_TIMEOUT_INTERVAL_MILLIS,
   CACHE_EXPIRY_IN_SECS,
-  JOB_QUEUE_TTL_SECONDS,
+  JOB_QUEUE_TTL_SECONDS_ASYNC,
+  JOB_QUEUE_TTL_SECONDS_SYNC,
   JOB_REMOVAL_DELAY_SECONDS,
   deprioritizeJobsFrom,
   endpointToLimit,
diff --git a/jobQueue/jobWrapper.js b/jobQueue/jobWrapper.js
index d590c5ebb9..6fc803856d 100644
--- a/jobQueue/jobWrapper.js
+++ b/jobQueue/jobWrapper.js
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ const queueTimeActivityLogs =
 
 // ttl converted to milliseconds
 const TIME_TO_LIVE =
-  1000 * jobSetup.ttlForJobs; // eslint-disable-line no-magic-numbers
+  1000 * jobSetup.ttlForJobsAsync; // eslint-disable-line no-magic-numbers
 
 /*
  * The delay is introduced to avoid the job.id leakage. It can be any
diff --git a/jobQueue/setup.js b/jobQueue/setup.js
index 02df0387bd..ae2df48ffd 100644
--- a/jobQueue/setup.js
+++ b/jobQueue/setup.js
@@ -51,7 +51,8 @@ module.exports = {
     PERSIST_SAMPLE_STORE: 'PERSIST_SAMPLE_STORE',
     SAMPLE_TIMEOUT: 'SAMPLE_TIMEOUT',
   },
-  ttlForJobs: conf.JOB_QUEUE_TTL_SECONDS,
+  ttlForJobsAsync: conf.JOB_QUEUE_TTL_SECONDS_ASYNC,
+  ttlForJobsSync: conf.JOB_QUEUE_TTL_SECONDS_SYNC,
   delayToRemoveJobs: conf.JOB_REMOVAL_DELAY_SECONDS,
   kue,
 }; // exports