diff --git a/orchestrator/activities/slot_manager.py b/orchestrator/activities/slot_manager.py
index 45d77d4..d8484cb 100644
--- a/orchestrator/activities/slot_manager.py
+++ b/orchestrator/activities/slot_manager.py
@@ -67,7 +67,15 @@ class SlotManager(Redis):
 
         self.logger.debug("Active ingestors: \n %s", active_ingestors)
 
-        return [ingestor.decode('utf-8') for ingestor in active_ingestors]
+        ingestors = []
+
+        for ingestor in active_ingestors:
+            if isinstance(ingestor, bytes):
+                ingestors.append(ingestor.decode('utf-8'))
+            else:
+                ingestors.append(ingestor)
+
+        return ingestors
 
     @activity.defn(name="update_slots")
     async def update_slots(self, input_data: dict[str, Any]) -> dict[str, Any]: