diff --git a/athena/queues/new-message-in-thread/buffer-email.js b/athena/queues/new-message-in-thread/buffer-email.js
index 5748e93c27..1cb45b60e3 100644
--- a/athena/queues/new-message-in-thread/buffer-email.js
+++ b/athena/queues/new-message-in-thread/buffer-email.js
@@ -164,7 +164,26 @@ const bufferMessageNotificationEmail = async (
       thread.id
     }`
   );
-  const job = await bufferNewMessageEmailQueue.getJob(recipient.email);
+  let job = await bufferNewMessageEmailQueue.getJob(recipient.email);
+  // Try to remove the job if it exists. This fails sometimes due to a
+  // race condition where the getJob returns a failed or active job.
+  // We circumvent that issue by simply pretending like no job exists
+  // and adding a new one
+  // Ref: withspectrum/spectrum#3189
+  if (job) {
+    debug(`timeout exists for ${recipient.email}, clearing`);
+    try {
+      await job.remove();
+    } catch (err) {
+      try {
+        await job.finished();
+        // Note(@mxstbr): This throws if the job fails to complete
+        // but we don't care if that happens, so we ignore it
+      } catch (err) {}
+
+      job = null;
+    }
+  }
   if (!job) {
     debug(
       `creating new timeout for ${
@@ -185,9 +204,6 @@ const bufferMessageNotificationEmail = async (
     );
   } else {
     const timeout = job.data;
-    // If we already have a timeout going
-    debug(`timeout exists for ${recipient.email}, clearing`);
-    await job.remove();
     debug(`adding new thread to ${recipient.email}'s threads`);
     timeout.threads.push(thread);
     timeout.notifications.push(notification);
diff --git a/shared/bull/types.js b/shared/bull/types.js
index d1f897d0a7..0d0d91fb8d 100644
--- a/shared/bull/types.js
+++ b/shared/bull/types.js
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ export type Job<JobData> = {|
   id: string,
   data: JobData,
   remove: () => Promise<void>,
+  finished: () => Promise<void>,
 |};
 
 type JobOptions = {|