diff --git a/test/extended/operators/operators.go b/test/extended/operators/operators.go
index 43ad9f626604..f983c0747a4a 100644
--- a/test/extended/operators/operators.go
+++ b/test/extended/operators/operators.go
@@ -235,15 +235,33 @@ func surprisingConditions(co objx.Map) ([]configv1.ClusterOperatorStatusConditio
 				expected = configv1.ConditionTrue
 			}
 			if cond.Get("status").String() != string(expected) {
-				if conditionType == configv1.OperatorUpgradeable && (name == "kube-storage-version-migrator" || // https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1928141
-					name == "openshift-controller-manager" || // https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1948011
-					name == "service-ca") { // https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1948012
+				reason := cond.Get("reason").String()
+				if conditionType == configv1.OperatorUpgradeable && (name == "kube-storage-version-migrator" || // https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1928141 , currently fixed for 4.10, but no backports at the moment.  We currently have ...-upgrade-4.y-to-4.(y+1)-to-4.(y+2)-to-4.(y+3)-ci jobs, so as long as we don't extend that +3 skew for those jobs, we should be able to drop this code once 4.13 forks off of the development branch.
+					name == "openshift-controller-manager" || // https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1948011 , currently fixed for 4.8, but no backports at the moment.  We currently have ...-upgrade-4.y-to-4.(y+1)-to-4.(y+2)-to-4.(y+3)-ci jobs, so as long as we don't extend that +3 skew for those jobs, we should be able to drop this code once 4.10 forks off the development branch.
+					name == "service-ca" || // https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1948012 , currently fixed for 4.8, but no backports at the moment.  We currently have ...-upgrade-4.y-to-4.(y+1)-to-4.(y+2)-to-4.(y+3)-ci jobs, so as long as we don't extend that +3 skew for those jobs, we should be able to drop this code once 4.10 forks off the development branch.
+
+					// Allow some node skew for post-update unpause monitoring.  Without this,
+					// 4.8->4.9->4.10 jobs are updating successfully to 4.10, unpausing
+					// compute, running the post-unpause compute-settling monitor, and
+					// failing on [1,2]:
+					//
+					//   : [sig-arch][Early] Managed cluster should start all core operators [Skipped:Disconnected] [Suite:openshift/conformance/parallel]     0s
+					//   fail [github.com/onsi/ginkgo@v4.7.0-origin.0+incompatible/internal/leafnodes/runner.go:113]: Oct 17 23:28:57.284: Some cluster operators are not ready: kube-apiserver (Upgradeable=False KubeletMinorVersion_KubeletMinorVersionUnsupportedNextUpgrade: KubeletMinorVersionUpgradeable: Kubelet minor versions on nodes ip-10-0-135-91.ec2.internal, ip-10-0-168-151.ec2.internal, and ip-10-0-192-244.ec2.internal will not be supported in the next OpenShift minor version upgrade.)
+					//
+					// With this change, that skew guard from [3] is allowed to trip early in
+					// the suite.  But if it trips for long enough to set off alerts, we'd
+					// still fail on that.
+					//
+					// [1]: https://testgrid.k8s.io/redhat-openshift-ocp-release-4.10-informing#periodic-ci-openshift-release-master-nightly-4.10-upgrade-from-stable-4.8-e2e-aws-upgrade-paused
+					// [2]: https://prow.ci.openshift.org/view/gs/origin-ci-test/logs/periodic-ci-openshift-release-master-nightly-4.10-upgrade-from-stable-4.8-e2e-aws-upgrade-paused/1449821870344900608
+					// [3]: https://github.com/openshift/cluster-kube-apiserver-operator/pull/1199
+					(name == "kube-apiserver" && reason == "KubeletMinorVersion_KubeletMinorVersionUnsupportedNextUpgrade")) {
 					continue
 				}
 				badConditions = append(badConditions, configv1.ClusterOperatorStatusCondition{
 					Type:    conditionType,
 					Status:  configv1.ConditionStatus(cond.Get("status").String()),
-					Reason:  cond.Get("reason").String(),
+					Reason:  reason,
 					Message: cond.Get("message").String(),
 				})
 			}