diff --git a/doc/htconfig.md b/doc/htconfig.md
index 8e0b890926..dbdbf15033 100644
--- a/doc/htconfig.md
+++ b/doc/htconfig.md
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ Example: To set the directory value please add this line to your .htconfig.php:
 * disable_url_validation (Boolean) - Disables the DNS lookup of an URL.
 * event_input_format - Default value is "ymd".
 * frontend_worker (Boolean) - Activates the frontend worker which acts as a replacement for running the poller via the command line.
+* frontend_worker_timeout - Value in minutes after we think that a frontend task was killed by the webserver. Default value is 10.
 * ignore_cache (Boolean) - For development only. Disables the item cache.
 * like_no_comment (Boolean) - Don't update the "commented" value of an item when it is liked.
 * local_block (Boolean) - Used in conjunction with "block_public".
diff --git a/include/poller.php b/include/poller.php
index f65134023d..b8e14a0965 100644
--- a/include/poller.php
+++ b/include/poller.php
@@ -523,10 +523,11 @@ function call_worker_if_idle() {
  * @brief Removes long running worker processes
  */
 function clear_worker_processes() {
-	/// @todo the 10 minutes needs to be configurable
-	/// Additionally we should clean up the corresponding workerqueue entries as well
+	$timeout = Config::get("system", "frontend_worker_timeout", 10);
+
+	/// @todo We should clean up the corresponding workerqueue entries as well
 	q("DELETE FROM `process` WHERE `created` < '%s' AND `command` = 'worker.php'",
-		dbesc(datetime_convert('UTC','UTC',"now - 10 minutes")));
+		dbesc(datetime_convert('UTC','UTC',"now - ".$timeout." minutes")));
 }
 
 /**
diff --git a/mod/worker.php b/mod/worker.php
index 1d1ab2af33..1375799667 100644
--- a/mod/worker.php
+++ b/mod/worker.php
@@ -1,4 +1,8 @@
 <?php
+/**
+ * @file mod/worker.php
+ * @brief Module for running the poller as frontend process
+ */
 require_once("include/poller.php");
 
 use \Friendica\Core\Config;
@@ -6,7 +10,7 @@ use \Friendica\Core\PConfig;
 
 function worker_init($a){
 
-	if (!get_config("system", "frontend_worker")) {
+	if (!Config::get("system", "frontend_worker")) {
 		return;
 	}