diff --git a/src/main.c b/src/main.c
index 2434321..b1f053a 100644
--- a/src/main.c
+++ b/src/main.c
@@ -49,6 +49,9 @@ extern char ** environ;
  */
 
 #define CONFIG_DEBUG_MODE_KEY     "ZLDEBUG"
+/* delay between starting each component, in seconds */
+#define CONFIG_SLEEP_TIME_KEY     "ZLDELAYS"
+#define DEFAULT_SLEEP_TIME_SEC    5
 #define ZOWE_CONFIG_NAME          "ZOWEYAML"
 #define CONFIG_DEBUG_MODE_VALUE   "ON"
 
@@ -100,6 +103,7 @@ typedef struct zl_int_array_t {
 
 typedef struct zl_config_t {
   bool debug_mode;
+  int sleep_time;
 } zl_config_t;
 
 typedef struct zl_comp_t {
@@ -160,7 +164,11 @@ struct {
   
   pid_t pid;
   char userid[9];
-  
+
+  /* Sleep time of 5 seconds during startup of components
+     is to temporarily workaround parallelism performance issues on z/OS
+     If the situation improves in the future, we can reduce this.
+  */
 } zl_context = {.config = {.debug_mode = false}, .userid = "(NONE)"} ;
 
 
@@ -584,6 +592,7 @@ static int start_component(zl_comp_t *comp) {
     "--component", comp->name, 
     NULL
   };
+  
   comp->pid = spawn(bin, fd_count, fd_map, &inherit, c_args, c_envp);
   if (comp->pid == -1) {
     DEBUG("spawn() failed for %s - %s\n", comp->name, strerror(errno));
@@ -606,13 +615,17 @@ static int start_component(zl_comp_t *comp) {
   return 0;
 }
 
-static int start_components(void) {
+static int start_components(zl_config_t *config) {
 
   INFO(MSG_STARTING_COMPS);
 
   int rc = 0;
 
   for (size_t i = 0; i < zl_context.child_count; i++) {
+    if (config->sleep_time) {
+      INFO(MSG_COMP_SLEEP, config->sleep_time);
+      sleep(config->sleep_time);
+    }
     if (start_component(&zl_context.children[i])) {
       ERROR(MSG_COMP_START_FAILED, zl_context.children[i].name);
       rc = -1;
@@ -920,6 +933,17 @@ static zl_config_t read_config(int argc, char **argv) {
     result.debug_mode = true;
   }
 
+  char *sleep_value = getenv(CONFIG_SLEEP_TIME_KEY);
+  if (sleep_value) {
+    char *end;
+    long int sleep_number = strtol(sleep_value, &end, 10);
+    result.sleep_time = sleep_number;
+    INFO("sleep_time changed to %d\n",sleep_number);
+  } else {
+    result.sleep_time = DEFAULT_SLEEP_TIME_SEC;
+    INFO("Using sleep_time default of %d\n",result.sleep_time);
+  }
+
   return result;
 }
 
@@ -1245,12 +1269,20 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv) {
   ConfigManager *configmgr = makeConfigManager(); /* configs,schemas,1,stderr); */
   CFGConfig *theConfig = addConfig(configmgr,ZOWE_CONFIG_NAME);
   cfgSetTraceStream(configmgr,stderr);
-  cfgSetTraceLevel(configmgr, zl_context.config.debug_mode ? 2 : 0);
+
+  INFO("configmgr debug=%d\n",config.debug_mode);
+  cfgSetTraceLevel(configmgr, config.debug_mode ? 2 : 0);
   
   if (init_context(argc, argv, &config, configmgr)) {
     ERROR(MSG_CTX_INIT_FAILED);
     exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
   }
+  
+  if (config.sleep_time) {
+    INFO(MSG_CONFIG_SLEEP, config.sleep_time);
+  } else {
+    INFO("Launcher is not using sleeps\n");
+  }
 
   cfgSetConfigPath(configmgr, ZOWE_CONFIG_NAME, zl_context.yaml_file);
   int parm_member_len = strlen(zl_context.parm_member);
@@ -1306,7 +1338,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv) {
     exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
   }
 
-  start_components();
+  start_components(&config);
 
   if (start_console_tread()) {
     ERROR(MSG_CONS_START_ERR);
diff --git a/src/msg.h b/src/msg.h
index aabd9cf..19ea663 100644
--- a/src/msg.h
+++ b/src/msg.h
@@ -87,6 +87,8 @@
 #define MSG_CFG_INTERNAL_FAIL   MSG_PREFIX "0071E" " Internal failure during validation, please contact support\n"
 #define MSG_CFG_LOAD_FAIL       MSG_PREFIX "0072E" " Launcher Could not load configurations\n"
 #define MSG_CFG_SCHEMA_FAIL     MSG_PREFIX "0073E" " Launcher Could not load schemas, status=%d\n"
+#define MSG_CONFIG_SLEEP        MSG_PREFIX "0074I" " Launcher configured to stagger initial component start by %d seconds\n"
+#define MSG_COMP_SLEEP          MSG_PREFIX "0075I" " Waiting %d seconds before component start\n"
 
 #endif // MSG_H