$ time ssh pergolesi.debian.org sleep 5; echo done
done
real0m2.957s
The problem is not universal:
$ uname -a
Linux feynman 2.6.7.2004-07-11feynman-amd64 #3 Sun Jul 11 03:09:04 EDT
2004 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ time sleep 5
real0m5.001s
user0m0.000s
sys 0m0.002s
$ dpkg -l coreutils
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name VersionDescription
+++-==-==-
ii coreutils 5.0.91-2 The GNU core utilities