diff --git a/lib/tasks/gather.js b/lib/tasks/gather.js
index 9d88200e..86187b2f 100644
--- a/lib/tasks/gather.js
+++ b/lib/tasks/gather.js
@@ -93,6 +93,8 @@ class TaskGather extends SttTask {
 
   get needsStt() { return this.input.includes('speech'); }
 
+  get isBackgroundGather() { return this.bugname_prefix === 'background_bargeIn_'; }
+
   get wantsSingleUtterance() {
     return this.data.recognizer?.singleUtterance === true;
   }
@@ -227,7 +229,9 @@ class TaskGather extends SttTask {
 
     const startListening = async(cs, ep) => {
       this._startTimer();
-      if (this.isContinuousAsr && 0 === this.timeout) this._startAsrTimer();
+      if (this.isContinuousAsr && 0 === this.timeout && !this.isBackgroundGather) {
+        this._startAsrTimer();
+      }
       if (this.input.includes('speech') && !this.listenDuringPrompt) {
         try {
           await this._setSpeechHandlers(cs, ep);