diff --git a/pkg/operator/ceph/object/topic/controller.go b/pkg/operator/ceph/object/topic/controller.go
index 6c3a95f51..71734a675 100644
--- a/pkg/operator/ceph/object/topic/controller.go
+++ b/pkg/operator/ceph/object/topic/controller.go
@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@ func (r *ReconcileBucketTopic) Reconcile(context context.Context, request reconc
 	// workaround because the rook logging mechanism is not compatible with the controller-runtime logging interface
 	reconcileResponse, err := r.reconcile(request)
 	if err != nil {
+		r.updateStatus(k8sutil.ObservedGenerationNotAvailable, request.NamespacedName, k8sutil.ReconcileFailedStatus, nil)
 		logger.Errorf("failed to reconcile %v", err)
 	}
 
@@ -172,7 +173,6 @@ func (r *ReconcileBucketTopic) reconcile(request reconcile.Request) (reconcile.R
 	// validate the topic settings
 	err = cephBucketTopic.ValidateTopicSpec()
 	if err != nil {
-		r.updateStatus(k8sutil.ObservedGenerationNotAvailable, request.NamespacedName, k8sutil.ReconcileFailedStatus, nil)
 		return reconcile.Result{}, errors.Wrapf(err, "invalid CephBucketTopic %q", request.NamespacedName)
 	}
 
@@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ func (r *ReconcileBucketTopic) reconcile(request reconcile.Request) (reconcile.R
 	// create topic
 	topicARN, err := r.createCephBucketTopic(cephBucketTopic)
 	if err != nil {
-		return r.setFailedStatus(k8sutil.ObservedGenerationNotAvailable, request.NamespacedName, "failed to create topic for bucket notifications", err)
+		return reconcile.Result{}, errors.Wrapf(err, "topic creation failed for CephBucketTopic %q", request.NamespacedName)
 	}
 
 	// update ObservedGeneration in status a the end of reconcile
@@ -220,11 +220,6 @@ func (r *ReconcileBucketTopic) deleteCephBucketTopic(topic *cephv1.CephBucketTop
 	)
 }
 
-func (r *ReconcileBucketTopic) setFailedStatus(observedGeneration int64, name types.NamespacedName, errMessage string, err error) (reconcile.Result, error) {
-	r.updateStatus(observedGeneration, name, k8sutil.ReconcileFailedStatus, nil)
-	return reconcile.Result{}, errors.Wrapf(err, "%s", errMessage)
-}
-
 // updateStatus updates the topic with a given status
 func (r *ReconcileBucketTopic) updateStatus(observedGeneration int64, nsName types.NamespacedName, status string, topicARN *string) {
 	topic := &cephv1.CephBucketTopic{}