diff --git a/templates/gitlab-ci-k8s.yml b/templates/gitlab-ci-k8s.yml
index 4b95ef993b85e1d6ed979942932dc515bcafd11e..fb1ccb0bb13d072cc6553b8d237b27eae5686ed0 100644
--- a/templates/gitlab-ci-k8s.yml
+++ b/templates/gitlab-ci-k8s.yml
@@ -894,7 +894,7 @@ k8s-review:
     - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG
       when: never
     # only on non-production, non-integration branches, with $K8S_REVIEW_SPACE set
-    - if: '$K8S_REVIEW_SPACE && $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME !~ $PROD_REF && $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME !~ $INTEG_REF'
+    - if: '$K8S_REVIEW_SPACE != "" && $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME !~ $PROD_REF && $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME !~ $INTEG_REF'
 
 # stop review env (automatically triggered once branches are deleted)
 k8s-cleanup-review:
@@ -916,7 +916,7 @@ k8s-cleanup-review:
     - if: $CI_COMMIT_TAG
       when: never
     # only on non-production, non-integration branches, with $K8S_REVIEW_SPACE set
-    - if: '$K8S_REVIEW_SPACE && $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME !~ $PROD_REF && $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME !~ $INTEG_REF'
+    - if: '$K8S_REVIEW_SPACE != "" && $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME !~ $PROD_REF && $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME !~ $INTEG_REF'
       when: manual
       allow_failure: true
 
@@ -936,7 +936,7 @@ k8s-integration:
   resource_group: integration
   rules:
     # only on integration branch(es), with $K8S_INTEG_SPACE set
-    - if: '$K8S_INTEG_SPACE && $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME =~ $INTEG_REF'
+    - if: '$K8S_INTEG_SPACE != "" && $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME =~ $INTEG_REF'
 
 ###############################
 # Staging deploys are disabled by default since
@@ -961,7 +961,7 @@ k8s-staging:
   resource_group: staging
   rules:
     # only on production branch(es), with $K8S_STAGING_SPACE set
-    - if: '$K8S_STAGING_SPACE && $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME =~ $PROD_REF'
+    - if: '$K8S_STAGING_SPACE != "" && $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME =~ $PROD_REF'
 
 k8s-production:
   extends: .k8s-deploy