diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/postprocessing-events.md b/changelog/unreleased/postprocessing-events.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7b32efcc31
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/postprocessing-events.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+Bugfix: increase event processing workers
+
+We increased the number of go routines that pull events from the queue to three and made the number off workers configurable. Furthermore, the postprocessing delay no longer introduces a sleep that slows down pulling of events, but asynchronously triggers the next step.
+
+https://github.com/owncloud/ocis/pull/10368
diff --git a/services/postprocessing/pkg/config/config.go b/services/postprocessing/pkg/config/config.go
index 70f0723702..8919df2f7a 100644
--- a/services/postprocessing/pkg/config/config.go
+++ b/services/postprocessing/pkg/config/config.go
@@ -25,7 +25,9 @@ type Config struct {
 
 // Postprocessing defines the config options for the postprocessing service.
 type Postprocessing struct {
-	Events          Events        `yaml:"events"`
+	Events  Events `yaml:"events"`
+	Workers int    `yaml:"workers" env:"POSTPROCESSING_WORKERS" desc:"The number of concurrent go routines that fetch events from the event queue." introductionVersion:"6.7"`
+
 	Steps           []string      `yaml:"steps" env:"POSTPROCESSING_STEPS" desc:"A list of postprocessing steps processed in order of their appearance. Currently supported values by the system are: 'virusscan', 'policies' and 'delay'. Custom steps are allowed. See the documentation for instructions. See the Environment Variable Types description for more details." introductionVersion:"pre5.0"`
 	Delayprocessing time.Duration `yaml:"delayprocessing" env:"POSTPROCESSING_DELAY" desc:"After uploading a file but before making it available for download, a delay step can be added. Intended for developing purposes only. If a duration is set but the keyword 'delay' is not explicitely added to 'POSTPROCESSING_STEPS', the delay step will be processed as last step. In such a case, a log entry will be written on service startup to remind the admin about that situation. See the Environment Variable Types description for more details." introductionVersion:"pre5.0"`
 
diff --git a/services/postprocessing/pkg/config/defaults/defaultconfig.go b/services/postprocessing/pkg/config/defaults/defaultconfig.go
index 51a9bb6112..4f00a1ff9e 100644
--- a/services/postprocessing/pkg/config/defaults/defaultconfig.go
+++ b/services/postprocessing/pkg/config/defaults/defaultconfig.go
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ func DefaultConfig() *config.Config {
 				Endpoint: "127.0.0.1:9233",
 				Cluster:  "ocis-cluster",
 			},
+			Workers:              3,
 			RetryBackoffDuration: 5 * time.Second,
 			MaxRetries:           14,
 		},
diff --git a/services/postprocessing/pkg/postprocessing/postprocessing.go b/services/postprocessing/pkg/postprocessing/postprocessing.go
index 1ce3962357..f5274e9875 100644
--- a/services/postprocessing/pkg/postprocessing/postprocessing.go
+++ b/services/postprocessing/pkg/postprocessing/postprocessing.go
@@ -75,9 +75,12 @@ func (pp *Postprocessing) CurrentStep() interface{} {
 }
 
 // Delay will sleep the configured time then continue
-func (pp *Postprocessing) Delay() interface{} {
-	time.Sleep(pp.config.Delayprocessing)
-	return pp.next(events.PPStepDelay)
+func (pp *Postprocessing) Delay(f func(next interface{})) {
+	next := pp.next(events.PPStepDelay)
+	go func() {
+		time.Sleep(pp.config.Delayprocessing)
+		f(next)
+	}()
 }
 
 // BackoffDuration calculates the duration for exponential backoff based on the number of failures.
diff --git a/services/postprocessing/pkg/service/service.go b/services/postprocessing/pkg/service/service.go
index 13441567d9..70918e8108 100644
--- a/services/postprocessing/pkg/service/service.go
+++ b/services/postprocessing/pkg/service/service.go
@@ -65,18 +65,23 @@ func NewPostprocessingService(ctx context.Context, stream events.Stream, logger
 
 // Run to fulfil Runner interface
 func (pps *PostprocessingService) Run() error {
-	for e := range pps.events {
-		err := pps.processEvent(e)
-		if err != nil {
-			switch {
-			case errors.Is(err, ErrFatal):
-				return err
-			case errors.Is(err, ErrEvent):
-				continue
-			default:
-				pps.log.Fatal().Err(err).Msg("unknown error - exiting")
+	// Spawn workers that'll concurrently work the queue
+	for i := 0; i < pps.c.Workers; i++ {
+		go (func() {
+			for e := range pps.events {
+				err := pps.processEvent(e)
+				if err != nil {
+					switch {
+					case errors.Is(err, ErrFatal):
+						pps.log.Fatal().Err(err).Msg("fatal error - exiting")
+					case errors.Is(err, ErrEvent):
+						pps.log.Error().Err(err).Msg("continuing")
+					default:
+						pps.log.Fatal().Err(err).Msg("unknown error - exiting")
+					}
+				}
 			}
-		}
+		})()
 	}
 	return nil
 }
@@ -149,7 +154,11 @@ func (pps *PostprocessingService) processEvent(e events.Event) error {
 			pps.log.Error().Str("uploadID", ev.UploadID).Err(err).Msg("cannot get upload")
 			return fmt.Errorf("%w: cannot get upload", ErrEvent)
 		}
-		next = pp.Delay()
+		pp.Delay(func(next interface{}) {
+			if err := events.Publish(ctx, pps.pub, next); err != nil {
+				pps.log.Error().Err(err).Msg("cannot publish event")
+			}
+		})
 	case events.UploadReady:
 		if ev.Failed {
 			// the upload failed - let's keep it around for a while - but mark it as finished