diff --git a/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/ScheduledChore.java b/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/ScheduledChore.java
index dd98d26565b..2c54b9fb5d2 100644
--- a/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/ScheduledChore.java
+++ b/hbase-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/ScheduledChore.java
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ public abstract class ScheduledChore implements Runnable {
 
   private double getMaximumAllowedTimeBetweenRuns() {
     // Threshold used to determine if the Chore's current run started too late
-    return 1.5 * period;
+    return 1.5 * timeUnit.toMillis(period);
   }
 
   private synchronized boolean isValidTime(final long time) {