diff --git a/java/appengine-pipeline-0.3+worklytics.11-pom.xml b/java/appengine-pipeline-0.3+worklytics.12-pom.xml
similarity index 99%
rename from java/appengine-pipeline-0.3+worklytics.11-pom.xml
rename to java/appengine-pipeline-0.3+worklytics.12-pom.xml
index d8def549..1f55967a 100644
--- a/java/appengine-pipeline-0.3+worklytics.11-pom.xml
+++ b/java/appengine-pipeline-0.3+worklytics.12-pom.xml
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
   <!-- just rename the version and copy over -->
   <!-- follow semver, with suggested guidance for versioning fork of OSS -->
   <!-- see https://gofore.com/en/best-practices-for-forking-a-git-repo/ -->
-  <version>0.3+worklytics.11</version>
+  <version>0.3+worklytics.12</version>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
   <licenses>
     <license>
diff --git a/java/pom.xml b/java/pom.xml
index f3be4caf..c3e40039 100644
--- a/java/pom.xml
+++ b/java/pom.xml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
   <url>https://github.com/Worklytics/appengine-pipelines/</url>
   <!-- follow semver, with suggested guidance for versioning fork of OSS -->
   <!-- see https://gofore.com/en/best-practices-for-forking-a-git-repo/ -->
-  <version>0.3+worklytics.11</version>
+  <version>0.3+worklytics.12</version>
   <packaging>jar</packaging>
   <licenses>
     <license>
diff --git a/java/src/main/java/com/google/appengine/tools/pipeline/impl/backend/AppEngineTaskQueue.java b/java/src/main/java/com/google/appengine/tools/pipeline/impl/backend/AppEngineTaskQueue.java
index 806d97a3..149ee1b6 100755
--- a/java/src/main/java/com/google/appengine/tools/pipeline/impl/backend/AppEngineTaskQueue.java
+++ b/java/src/main/java/com/google/appengine/tools/pipeline/impl/backend/AppEngineTaskQueue.java
@@ -159,8 +159,7 @@ public Collection<TaskReference> enqueue(final Collection<PipelineTask> pipeline
   public Multimap<String, TaskSpec> asTaskSpecs(Collection<PipelineTask> pipelineTasks) {
     Multimap<String, TaskSpec> taskSpecs = HashMultimap.create();
     pipelineTasks.forEach( pipelineTask -> {
-      String queueName = Optional.ofNullable(pipelineTask.getQueueSettings().getOnQueue()).orElse("default");
-      taskSpecs.put(queueName, pipelineTask.toTaskSpec(servicesService, taskHandlerUrl));
+      taskSpecs.put(getQueueForTask(pipelineTask), pipelineTask.toTaskSpec(servicesService, taskHandlerUrl));
     });
     return taskSpecs;
   }
@@ -175,7 +174,7 @@ List<TaskReference> addToQueue(final Collection<PipelineTask> pipelineTasks) {
     Map<String, List<TaskOptions>> queueNameToTaskOptions = new HashMap<>();
     for (PipelineTask pipelineTask : pipelineTasks) {
       log.finest("Enqueueing: " + pipelineTask);
-      String queueName = pipelineTask.getQueueSettings().getOnQueue();
+      String queueName = getQueueForTask(pipelineTask);
       TaskOptions taskOptions = toTaskOptions(pipelineTask);
 
 
diff --git a/java/src/main/java/com/google/appengine/tools/pipeline/impl/backend/CloudTasksTaskQueue.java b/java/src/main/java/com/google/appengine/tools/pipeline/impl/backend/CloudTasksTaskQueue.java
index 6f36dba0..7dead42b 100644
--- a/java/src/main/java/com/google/appengine/tools/pipeline/impl/backend/CloudTasksTaskQueue.java
+++ b/java/src/main/java/com/google/appengine/tools/pipeline/impl/backend/CloudTasksTaskQueue.java
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ public TaskReference enqueue(PipelineTask pipelineTask) {
   @Override
   public Collection<TaskReference> enqueue(Collection<PipelineTask> pipelineTasks) {
     Map<String, List<PipelineTask>> tasksByQueue = pipelineTasks.stream()
-      .collect(Collectors.groupingBy(pipelineTask -> Optional.ofNullable(pipelineTask.getQueueSettings().getOnQueue()).orElse(DEFAULT_QUEUE_NAME)));
+      .collect(Collectors.groupingBy(this::getQueueForTask));
 
     /// probably could use parallelStream here, but in practice don't *really* expect to have multiple queues in the batch
     return tasksByQueue.entrySet().stream()
@@ -89,8 +89,7 @@ public Multimap<String, TaskSpec> asTaskSpecs(Collection<PipelineTask> pipelineT
     Multimap<String, TaskSpec> taskSpecs = HashMultimap.create();
     pipelineTasks
       .forEach(pipelineTask -> {
-        String queueName = Optional.ofNullable(pipelineTask.getQueueSettings().getOnQueue()).orElse(DEFAULT_QUEUE_NAME);
-        taskSpecs.put(queueName, pipelineTask.toTaskSpec(appEngineServicesService, TaskHandler.handleTaskUrl()));
+        taskSpecs.put(getQueueForTask(pipelineTask), pipelineTask.toTaskSpec(appEngineServicesService, TaskHandler.handleTaskUrl()));
     });
     return taskSpecs;
   }
diff --git a/java/src/main/java/com/google/appengine/tools/pipeline/impl/backend/PipelineTaskQueue.java b/java/src/main/java/com/google/appengine/tools/pipeline/impl/backend/PipelineTaskQueue.java
index 8c202e42..4fd8b083 100755
--- a/java/src/main/java/com/google/appengine/tools/pipeline/impl/backend/PipelineTaskQueue.java
+++ b/java/src/main/java/com/google/appengine/tools/pipeline/impl/backend/PipelineTaskQueue.java
@@ -23,8 +23,11 @@
 import java.time.Instant;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.Optional;
 import java.util.SortedMap;
 
+import static com.google.appengine.tools.pipeline.impl.PipelineManager.DEFAULT_QUEUE_NAME;
+
 /**
  * 
  * @author rudominer@google.com (Mitch Rudominer)
@@ -148,4 +151,18 @@ default TaskReference enqueue(String queueName, TaskSpec taskSpec) {
    * @param taskReferences references to the tasks to delete
    */
   void deleteTasks(Collection<TaskReference> taskReferences);
+
+  /**
+   * Rationale about this: all the tasks that deal with the pipeline progress should be short-lived and shouldn't be
+   * held back by long-running tasks, potentially causing delays in checking slots, finalization, etc. and maybe
+   * leading to abandon locks
+   * @param pipelineTask
+   * @return
+   */
+  default String getQueueForTask(PipelineTask pipelineTask) {
+    if (pipelineTask.getType() == PipelineTask.Type.RUN_JOB) {
+      return Optional.ofNullable(pipelineTask.getQueueSettings().getOnQueue()).orElse(DEFAULT_QUEUE_NAME);
+    }
+    return DEFAULT_QUEUE_NAME;
+  }
 }
diff --git a/java/src/test/java/com/google/appengine/tools/pipeline/di/JobRunServiceComponentTest.java b/java/src/test/java/com/google/appengine/tools/pipeline/di/JobRunServiceComponentTest.java
index 3a532d0d..a144d9b5 100644
--- a/java/src/test/java/com/google/appengine/tools/pipeline/di/JobRunServiceComponentTest.java
+++ b/java/src/test/java/com/google/appengine/tools/pipeline/di/JobRunServiceComponentTest.java
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import com.google.appengine.tools.cloudtasktest.FakeHttpServletRequest;
 import com.google.appengine.tools.pipeline.PipelineService;
 import com.google.appengine.tools.pipeline.impl.backend.AppEngineServicesServiceImpl;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Disabled;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
 
 
@@ -11,6 +12,9 @@
 class JobRunServiceComponentTest {
 
 
+  // flaky, each test should have a fresh object graph, so here is expecting 0 instances, but being static, it
+  // could be more
+  @Disabled
   @Test
   public void testJobRunServiceComponent() {
     // basic DI setup that will really be done at runtime