diff --git a/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/core/fs/FileSystemTestUtils.java b/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/core/fs/FileSystemTestUtils.java
index 564ef3a30b349..23bde19abfc1e 100644
--- a/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/core/fs/FileSystemTestUtils.java
+++ b/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/core/fs/FileSystemTestUtils.java
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ public static void checkPathEventualExistence(
 			long deadline) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
 		boolean dirExists;
 		while ((dirExists = fs.exists(path)) != expectedExists &&
-				System.nanoTime() < deadline) {
+				System.nanoTime() - deadline < 0) {
 			Thread.sleep(10);
 		}
 		assertEquals(expectedExists, dirExists);
diff --git a/flink-filesystems/flink-hadoop-fs/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/runtime/fs/hdfs/AbstractHadoopFileSystemITTest.java b/flink-filesystems/flink-hadoop-fs/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/runtime/fs/hdfs/AbstractHadoopFileSystemITTest.java
index 083a8801da112..a7b29a7f28d6b 100644
--- a/flink-filesystems/flink-hadoop-fs/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/runtime/fs/hdfs/AbstractHadoopFileSystemITTest.java
+++ b/flink-filesystems/flink-hadoop-fs/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/runtime/fs/hdfs/AbstractHadoopFileSystemITTest.java
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ public static void teardown() throws IOException, InterruptedException {
 	}
 
 	public static void cleanupDirectoryWithRetry(FileSystem fs, Path path, long deadline) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
-		while (fs.exists(path) && System.nanoTime() < deadline) {
+		while (fs.exists(path) && System.nanoTime() - deadline < 0) {
 			fs.delete(path, true);
 			Thread.sleep(50L);
 		}