diff --git a/components/gitpod-db/src/typeorm/entity/db-prebuilt-workspace.ts b/components/gitpod-db/src/typeorm/entity/db-prebuilt-workspace.ts
index 22f3c5c6bfc795..7981f65f76451d 100644
--- a/components/gitpod-db/src/typeorm/entity/db-prebuilt-workspace.ts
+++ b/components/gitpod-db/src/typeorm/entity/db-prebuilt-workspace.ts
@@ -73,6 +73,8 @@ export class DBPrebuiltWorkspace implements PrebuiltWorkspace {
     // statusVersion must only be set by controller/observer.
     @Column({
         default: 0,
+        type: "bigint",
+        transformer: Transformer.MAP_BIGINT_TO_NUMBER,
     })
     statusVersion: number;
 }
diff --git a/components/gitpod-db/src/typeorm/transformer.ts b/components/gitpod-db/src/typeorm/transformer.ts
index 552f62bddcd161..6219d1501879ff 100644
--- a/components/gitpod-db/src/typeorm/transformer.ts
+++ b/components/gitpod-db/src/typeorm/transformer.ts
@@ -63,6 +63,32 @@ export namespace Transformer {
     export const compose = (upper: ValueTransformer, lower: ValueTransformer) => {
         return new CompositeValueTransformer(upper, lower);
     };
+
+    export const MAP_BIGINT_TO_NUMBER: ValueTransformer = {
+        to(value: any): any {
+            // we expect to receive a number, as that's what our type system gives us.
+            const isNumber = typeof value === "number";
+            if (!isNumber) {
+                return "0";
+            }
+
+            return value.toString();
+        },
+        from(value: any): any {
+            // the underlying representation of a BIGINT is a string
+            const isString = typeof value === "string" || value instanceof String;
+            if (!isString) {
+                return 0;
+            }
+
+            const num = Number(value);
+            if (isNaN(num)) {
+                return 0;
+            }
+
+            return num;
+        },
+    };
 }
 
 export class CompositeValueTransformer implements ValueTransformer {
diff --git a/components/ws-manager-bridge/ee/src/bridge.ts b/components/ws-manager-bridge/ee/src/bridge.ts
index b2576ef3ca5174..ee03aabf298182 100644
--- a/components/ws-manager-bridge/ee/src/bridge.ts
+++ b/components/ws-manager-bridge/ee/src/bridge.ts
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ export class WorkspaceManagerBridgeEE extends WorkspaceManagerBridge {
         const workspaceId = status.metadata!.metaId!;
         const logCtx: LogContext = { instanceId, workspaceId, userId };
 
+        log.info("Handling prebuild workspace update.", status);
+
         const span = TraceContext.startSpan("updatePrebuiltWorkspace", ctx);
         try {
             const prebuild = await this.workspaceDB.trace({ span }).findPrebuildByWorkspaceID(status.metadata!.metaId!);
@@ -61,15 +63,12 @@ export class WorkspaceManagerBridgeEE extends WorkspaceManagerBridge {
             }
             span.setTag("updatePrebuiltWorkspace.prebuildId", prebuild.id);
             span.setTag("updatePrebuiltWorkspace.workspaceInstance.statusVersion", status.statusVersion);
+            log.info("Found prebuild record in database.", prebuild);
 
             if (prebuild.statusVersion <= status.statusVersion) {
                 // prebuild.statusVersion = 0 is the default value in the DB, these shouldn't be counted as stale in our metrics
                 if (prebuild.statusVersion > 0) {
-                    // We've gotten an event which is younger than one we've already processed. We shouldn't process the stale one.
-                    span.setTag("updatePrebuiltWorkspace.staleEvent", true);
                     this.prometheusExporter.recordStalePrebuildEvent();
-                    log.info(logCtx, "Stale prebuild event received, skipping.");
-                    return;
                 }
             }
             prebuild.statusVersion = status.statusVersion;