diff --git a/doc/man/man1/scontrol.1 b/doc/man/man1/scontrol.1
index 4cf8980aeb874c84338fae19897cae6ec597d98d..0217cede7dfbdcfe65ebdde30d12effa352f2a44 100644
--- a/doc/man/man1/scontrol.1
+++ b/doc/man/man1/scontrol.1
@@ -936,7 +936,9 @@ Setting a node "DOWN" will cause all running and suspended jobs on that
 node to be terminated.
 "POWER_DOWN" and "POWER_UP" will use the configured \fISuspendProg\fR and
 \fIResumeProg\fR programs to explicitly place a node in or out of a power
-saving mode.
+saving mode. If a node is already in the process of being powered up or down,
+the command will have no effect until the configured ResumeTimeout or
+SuspendTimeout is reached.
 The "NoResp" state will only set the "NoResp" flag for a node without
 changing its underlying state.
 While all of the above states are valid, some of them are not valid new