diff --git a/cmd/kubelet/app/server.go b/cmd/kubelet/app/server.go
index 845dbb1678a..3a6e83e2e25 100644
--- a/cmd/kubelet/app/server.go
+++ b/cmd/kubelet/app/server.go
@@ -216,7 +216,7 @@ func NewKubeletServer() *KubeletServer {
 		RootDirectory:                  defaultRootDir,
 		SerializeImagePulls:            true,
 		StreamingConnectionIdleTimeout: 5 * time.Minute,
-		SyncFrequency:                  10 * time.Second,
+		SyncFrequency:                  1 * time.Minute,
 		SystemContainer:                "",
 		ReconcileCIDR:                  true,
 		KubeAPIQPS:                     5.0,
diff --git a/docs/admin/kubelet.md b/docs/admin/kubelet.md
index 6f9a99bcd73..4d4f8053241 100644
--- a/docs/admin/kubelet.md
+++ b/docs/admin/kubelet.md
@@ -131,13 +131,13 @@ kubelet
       --runonce[=false]: If true, exit after spawning pods from local manifests or remote urls. Exclusive with --api-servers, and --enable-server
       --serialize-image-pulls[=true]: Pull images one at a time. We recommend *not* changing the default value on nodes that run docker daemon with version < 1.9 or an Aufs storage backend. Issue #10959 has more details. [default=true]
       --streaming-connection-idle-timeout=5m0s: Maximum time a streaming connection can be idle before the connection is automatically closed.  Example: '5m'
-      --sync-frequency=10s: Max period between synchronizing running containers and config
+      --sync-frequency=1m0s: Max period between synchronizing running containers and config
       --system-container="": Optional resource-only container in which to place all non-kernel processes that are not already in a container. Empty for no container. Rolling back the flag requires a reboot. (Default: "").
       --tls-cert-file="": File containing x509 Certificate for HTTPS.  (CA cert, if any, concatenated after server cert). If --tls-cert-file and --tls-private-key-file are not provided, a self-signed certificate and key are generated for the public address and saved to the directory passed to --cert-dir.
       --tls-private-key-file="": File containing x509 private key matching --tls-cert-file.
 ```
 
-###### Auto generated by spf13/cobra on 10-Nov-2015
+###### Auto generated by spf13/cobra on 11-Nov-2015
 
 
 <!-- BEGIN MUNGE: GENERATED_ANALYTICS -->
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
index 7c7de112e05..1e84ab8d785 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
@@ -117,10 +117,14 @@ const (
 	// is a bit arbitrary and may be adjusted in the future.
 	plegChannelCapacity = 1000
 
-	// Relisting is used to discover missing container events.
-	// Use a shorter period because generic PLEG relies on relisting for
-	// container events.
+	// Generic PLEG relies on relisting for discovering container events.
+	// The period directly affects the response time of kubelet.
 	plegRelistPeriod = time.Second * 3
+
+	// backOffPeriod is the period to back off when pod syncing resulting in an
+	// error. It is also used as the base period for the exponential backoff
+	// container restarts and image pulls.
+	backOffPeriod = time.Second * 10
 )
 
 var (
@@ -437,11 +441,9 @@ func NewMainKubelet(
 	}
 	klet.runtimeCache = runtimeCache
 	klet.workQueue = queue.NewBasicWorkQueue()
-	// TODO(yujuhong): backoff and resync interval should be set differently
-	// once we switch to using pod event generator.
-	klet.podWorkers = newPodWorkers(runtimeCache, klet.syncPod, recorder, klet.workQueue, klet.resyncInterval, klet.resyncInterval)
+	klet.podWorkers = newPodWorkers(runtimeCache, klet.syncPod, recorder, klet.workQueue, klet.resyncInterval, backOffPeriod)
 
-	klet.backOff = util.NewBackOff(resyncInterval, MaxContainerBackOff)
+	klet.backOff = util.NewBackOff(backOffPeriod, MaxContainerBackOff)
 	klet.podKillingCh = make(chan *kubecontainer.Pod, podKillingChannelCapacity)
 	klet.sourcesSeen = sets.NewString()
 	return klet, nil