diff --git a/src/core/manager-serialize.c b/src/core/manager-serialize.c
index 6008e5655e..3c64755743 100644
--- a/src/core/manager-serialize.c
+++ b/src/core/manager-serialize.c
@@ -109,6 +109,7 @@ int manager_serialize(
         (void) serialize_usec(f, "pretimeout-watchdog-overridden", m->watchdog_overridden[WATCHDOG_PRETIMEOUT]);
         (void) serialize_item(f, "pretimeout-watchdog-governor-overridden", m->watchdog_pretimeout_governor_overridden);
 
+        (void) serialize_item(f, "previous-objective", manager_objective_to_string(m->objective));
         (void) serialize_item_format(f, "soft-reboots-count", "%u", m->soft_reboots_count);
 
         for (ManagerTimestamp q = 0; q < _MANAGER_TIMESTAMP_MAX; q++) {
@@ -158,9 +159,6 @@ int manager_serialize(
         (void) serialize_ratelimit(f, "dump-ratelimit", &m->dump_ratelimit);
         (void) serialize_ratelimit(f, "reload-reexec-ratelimit", &m->reload_reexec_ratelimit);
 
-        if (m->objective >= 0 && m->objective < _MANAGER_OBJECTIVE_MAX)
-                (void) serialize_item_format(f, "previous-objective", "%u", (unsigned) m->objective);
-
         bus_track_serialize(m->subscribed, f, "subscribed");
 
         r = dynamic_user_serialize(m, f, fds);
@@ -533,12 +531,13 @@ int manager_deserialize(Manager *m, FILE *f, FDSet *fds) {
                         else
                                 m->soft_reboots_count = n;
                 } else if ((val = startswith(l, "previous-objective="))) {
-                        unsigned n;
+                        ManagerObjective objective;
 
-                        if (safe_atou(val, &n) < 0 || n >= _MANAGER_OBJECTIVE_MAX)
-                                log_notice("Failed to parse objective '%s', ignoring.", val);
+                        objective = manager_objective_from_string(val);
+                        if (objective < 0)
+                                log_notice("Failed to parse previous objective '%s', ignoring.", val);
                         else
-                                m->previous_objective = n;
+                                m->previous_objective = objective;
 
                 } else {
                         ManagerTimestamp q;