diff --git a/compute_endpoint/globus_compute_endpoint/engines/high_throughput/messages.py b/compute_endpoint/globus_compute_endpoint/engines/high_throughput/messages.py
index 542c19f31..a5830339b 100644
--- a/compute_endpoint/globus_compute_endpoint/engines/high_throughput/messages.py
+++ b/compute_endpoint/globus_compute_endpoint/engines/high_throughput/messages.py
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ def pack(self) -> bytes:
             # globus_compute_common.messagepack in part because of issues like this
             add_ons = (
                 f"TID={self.task_id};CID={self.container_id};"  # type: ignore
-                f"{self.task_buffer}"
+                f"{self.task_buffer.decode()}"
             )
             self.raw_buffer = add_ons.encode("utf-8")
 
diff --git a/smoke_tests/tests/conftest.py b/smoke_tests/tests/conftest.py
index 4794d1f6f..f5458476a 100644
--- a/smoke_tests/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/smoke_tests/tests/conftest.py
@@ -225,7 +225,7 @@ def tutorial_function_id(compute_test_config):
 
 @pytest.fixture
 def timeout_s():
-    return 60
+    return 300
 
 
 class LinearBackoff: