diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
index 2bd35b966119f..a00ec548f34fd 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/kubelet.go
@@ -451,7 +451,11 @@ func NewMainKubelet(kubeCfg *kubeletconfiginternal.KubeletConfiguration,
 	var serviceLister corelisters.ServiceLister
 	var serviceHasSynced cache.InformerSynced
 	if kubeDeps.KubeClient != nil {
-		kubeInformers := informers.NewSharedInformerFactoryWithOptions(kubeDeps.KubeClient, 0)
+		// don't watch headless services, they are not needed since this informer is only used to create the environment variables for pods.
+		// See https://issues.k8s.io/122394
+		kubeInformers := informers.NewSharedInformerFactoryWithOptions(kubeDeps.KubeClient, 0, informers.WithTweakListOptions(func(options *metav1.ListOptions) {
+			options.FieldSelector = fields.OneTermNotEqualSelector("spec.clusterIP", v1.ClusterIPNone).String()
+		}))
 		serviceLister = kubeInformers.Core().V1().Services().Lister()
 		serviceHasSynced = kubeInformers.Core().V1().Services().Informer().HasSynced
 		kubeInformers.Start(wait.NeverStop)