I think we're going to need more information. We don't know how much — if any — of your system is written in
Java, for example.
Typically a workflow framework will have its own timer infrastructure so that's what you'd generally want to work with.
The secret of how to be miserable is to constantly expect things are going to happen the way that they are "supposed" to happen.
You can have faith, which carries the understanding that you may be disappointed. Then there's being a willfully-blind idiot, which virtually guarantees it.