diff --git a/src/cluster/OnLoop.h b/src/cluster/OnLoop.h
index d0aae42d45..0c488d24da 100644
--- a/src/cluster/OnLoop.h
+++ b/src/cluster/OnLoop.h
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 #include "zeek/Reporter.h"
 #include "zeek/iosource/IOSource.h"
 #include "zeek/iosource/Manager.h"
+#include "zeek/telemetry/Manager.h"
 
 namespace zeek::detail {
 
@@ -52,7 +53,13 @@ public:
           max_queue_size(max_queue_size),
           proc(proc),
           tag(std::move(tag)),
-          main_thread_id(main_thread_id) {}
+          main_thread_id(main_thread_id),
+          total_queue_stalls_metric(
+              zeek::telemetry_mgr
+                  ->CounterFamily(
+                      "zeek", "cluster_onloop_queue_stalls", {"tag"},
+                      "Increased whenever a cluster backend thread is stalled due to the OnLoop queue being full.")
+                  ->GetOrAdd({{"tag", this->tag}})) {}
 
     /**
      * Register this instance with the IO loop.
@@ -139,9 +146,9 @@ public:
     /**
      * Queue the given Work item to be processed on Zeek's main thread.
      *
-     * If there's too many items in the queue, this method sleeps using
-     * std::this_thread::sleep() for the *block_duration* passed to the
-     * constructor.
+     * If there's too many items in the queue, this method blocks until
+     * there's more room available. The zeek_cluster_onloop_queue_stalls_total
+     * metric will be increased once for every cond_timeout being blocked.
      *
      * Calling this method from the main thread will result in an abort().
      */
@@ -157,16 +164,13 @@ public:
         bool fire = false;
         size_t qs = 0;
 
-        int timeouts = 0;
-
         {
             std::unique_lock lock(mtx);
 
             // Wait for room in the queue.
             while ( IsOpen() && queue.size() >= max_queue_size ) {
-                auto status = cond.wait_for(lock, cond_timeout);
-                if ( status == std::cv_status::timeout && IsOpen() )
-                    ++timeouts;
+                total_queue_stalls_metric->Inc();
+                cond.wait_for(lock, cond_timeout);
             }
 
             if ( IsOpen() ) {
@@ -185,15 +189,6 @@ public:
         if ( fire )
             flare.Fire();
 
-        if ( timeouts > 0 ) {
-            // XXX: Should this invoke some callback or change the return value
-            // so users can react on this?
-            //
-            // We could also do suicidal snail pattern here. If the event
-            // loop is unable to process, we may as well knock ourselves out.
-            std::fprintf(stderr, "timeouts %d!\n", timeouts);
-        }
-
         --queuers;
     }
 
@@ -213,6 +208,9 @@ private:
     std::string tag;
     std::atomic<int> queuers = 0;
     std::thread::id main_thread_id;
+
+    // Track queue stalling.
+    telemetry::CounterPtr total_queue_stalls_metric;
 };