diff --git a/gunicorn_config.py b/gunicorn_config.py
index 62223af54..c4844df4b 100644
--- a/gunicorn_config.py
+++ b/gunicorn_config.py
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ import os
 import sys
 import traceback
 import gunicorn
+import eventlet
+import socket
 
 from gds_metrics.gunicorn import child_exit  # noqa
 
@@ -30,3 +32,22 @@ def on_exit(server):
 
 def worker_int(worker):
     worker.log.info("worker: received SIGINT {}".format(worker.pid))
+
+
+def fix_ssl_monkeypatching():
+    """
+    eventlet works by monkey-patching core IO libraries (such as ssl) to be non-blocking. However, there's currently
+    a bug: In the normal socket library it may throw a timeout error as a `socket.timeout` exception. However
+    eventlet.green.ssl's patch raises an ssl.SSLError('timed out',) instead. redispy handles socket.timeout but not
+    ssl.SSLError, so we solve this by monkey patching the monkey patching code to raise the correct exception type
+    :scream:
+
+    https://github.com/eventlet/eventlet/issues/692
+    """
+    # this has probably already been called somewhere in gunicorn internals, however, to be sure, we invoke it again.
+    # eventlet.monkey_patch can be called multiple times without issue
+    eventlet.monkey_patch()
+    eventlet.green.ssl.timeout_exc = socket.timeout
+
+
+fix_ssl_monkeypatching()