diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 32b1fc5..f4943a9 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -19,6 +19,13 @@
 - Fix: `Queue.empty()` now correctly deletes job hashes from Redis.
 
 
+### 0.3.12
+(December 16th, 2013)
+
+- Bug fix where a worker could time out before the job was done, removing it
+  from any monitor overviews (#288).
+
+
 ### 0.3.11
 (August 23th, 2013)
 
diff --git a/rq/version.py b/rq/version.py
index efdcdac..3b59d7f 100644
--- a/rq/version.py
+++ b/rq/version.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-VERSION = '0.3.11'
+VERSION = '0.3.12'
diff --git a/rq/worker.py b/rq/worker.py
index 6a32f8a..6a56da0 100644
--- a/rq/worker.py
+++ b/rq/worker.py
@@ -322,9 +322,9 @@ class Worker(object):
                 self.log.info('%s: %s (%s)' % (green(queue.name),
                               blue(job.description), job.id))
 
-                self.connection.expire(self.key, (job.timeout or Queue.DEFAULT_TIMEOUT) + 60)
+                self.heartbeat((job.timeout or Queue.DEFAULT_TIMEOUT) + 60)
                 self.fork_and_perform_job(job)
-                self.connection.expire(self.key, self.default_worker_ttl)
+                self.heartbeat()
                 if job.status == Status.FINISHED:
                     queue.enqueue_dependents(job)
 
@@ -335,15 +335,34 @@ class Worker(object):
         return did_perform_work
 
     def dequeue_job_and_maintain_ttl(self, timeout):
+        result = None
         while True:
+            self.heartbeat()
             try:
-                return Queue.dequeue_any(self.queues, timeout,
-                                         connection=self.connection)
+                result = Queue.dequeue_any(self.queues, timeout,
+                                           connection=self.connection)
+                break
             except DequeueTimeout:
                 pass
 
-            self.log.debug('Sending heartbeat to prevent worker timeout.')
-            self.connection.expire(self.key, self.default_worker_ttl)
+        self.heartbeat()
+        return result
+
+    def heartbeat(self, timeout=0):
+        """Specifies a new worker timeout, typically by extending the
+        expiration time of the worker, effectively making this a "heartbeat"
+        to not expire the worker until the timeout passes.
+
+        The next heartbeat should come before this time, or the worker will
+        die (at least from the monitoring dashboards).
+
+        The effective timeout can never be shorter than default_worker_ttl,
+        only larger.
+        """
+        timeout = max(timeout, self.default_worker_ttl)
+        self.connection.expire(self.key, timeout)
+        self.log.debug('Sent heartbeat to prevent worker timeout. '
+                       'Next one should arrive within {0} seconds.'.format(timeout))
 
     def fork_and_perform_job(self, job):
         """Spawns a work horse to perform the actual work and passes it a job.