diff --git a/src/ZB.MOM.WW.MxGateway.Tests/Gateway/Sessions/SessionManagerTests.cs b/src/ZB.MOM.WW.MxGateway.Tests/Gateway/Sessions/SessionManagerTests.cs
index 2a0a1af..1ac81c7 100644
--- a/src/ZB.MOM.WW.MxGateway.Tests/Gateway/Sessions/SessionManagerTests.cs
+++ b/src/ZB.MOM.WW.MxGateway.Tests/Gateway/Sessions/SessionManagerTests.cs
@@ -420,10 +420,16 @@ public sealed class SessionManagerTests
     [Fact]
     public async Task InvokeAsync_WhenWorkerFaulted_FailsFastWithBothStates()
     {
+        // Use a deliberately large ready-wait timeout so fail-fast is unambiguous: a terminal
+        // worker must surface immediately instead of burning it. The timing assertion below is
+        // anchored to a small fraction of this timeout (not an absolute ~100ms wall-clock bound,
+        // which flaked under CI load) so a regression that waited out the timeout is caught
+        // while ordinary scheduling jitter never trips it.
+        const int readyWaitTimeoutMs = 5000;
         FakeWorkerClient workerClient = new() { State = WorkerClientState.Faulted };
         SessionManager manager = CreateManager(
             new FakeSessionWorkerClientFactory(workerClient),
-            options: CreateOptions(workerReadyWaitTimeoutMs: 500));
+            options: CreateOptions(workerReadyWaitTimeoutMs: readyWaitTimeoutMs));
         GatewaySession session = await manager.OpenSessionAsync(CreateOpenRequest(), "client-1", ownerKeyId: null, CancellationToken.None);
         Assert.Equal(SessionState.Ready, session.State);
 
@@ -435,7 +441,9 @@ public sealed class SessionManagerTests
                 CancellationToken.None));
         stopwatch.Stop();
 
-        Assert.True(stopwatch.ElapsedMilliseconds < 100, $"Expected immediate fail-fast but took {stopwatch.ElapsedMilliseconds}ms.");
+        Assert.True(
+            stopwatch.ElapsedMilliseconds < readyWaitTimeoutMs / 3,
+            $"Expected fail-fast well under the {readyWaitTimeoutMs}ms ready-wait timeout but took {stopwatch.ElapsedMilliseconds}ms.");
         Assert.Equal(SessionManagerErrorCode.SessionNotReady, exception.ErrorCode);
         Assert.Contains("Session state is Ready", exception.Message);
         Assert.Contains("worker state is Faulted", exception.Message);
@@ -487,15 +495,17 @@ public sealed class SessionManagerTests
         GatewaySession session = await manager.OpenSessionAsync(CreateOpenRequest(), "client-1", ownerKeyId: null, CancellationToken.None);
         Assert.Equal(SessionState.Ready, session.State);
 
-        Stopwatch stopwatch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
+        // A zero timeout has no wait window to burn, so there is no wall-clock timing to assert
+        // (the previous absolute ~100ms bound only measured host load and flaked under CI). The
+        // error code, the byte-for-byte both-states message, and InvokeCount == 0 fully pin the
+        // immediate fail-fast — a regression that started polling would still surface the same
+        // outcome, not a timing difference worth a flaky assertion.
         SessionManagerException exception = await Assert.ThrowsAsync<SessionManagerException>(
             async () => await manager.InvokeAsync(
                 session.SessionId,
                 CreateCommand(MxCommandKind.Ping),
                 CancellationToken.None));
-        stopwatch.Stop();
 
-        Assert.True(stopwatch.ElapsedMilliseconds < 100, $"Expected immediate fail-fast but took {stopwatch.ElapsedMilliseconds}ms.");
         Assert.Equal(SessionManagerErrorCode.SessionNotReady, exception.ErrorCode);
         Assert.Contains("Session state is Ready", exception.Message);
         Assert.Contains("worker state is Handshaking", exception.Message);