Powershell job unexpectedly returning 'System.Management.Automation.PSObject' object instead of System.Object - powershell

Question

I run a maintenance Powershell script which remotely checks Windows server event logs for various entries and then takes appropriate corrective/alerting actions.
The script runs every 5 minutes, but will occasionally run too long due to Get-WinEvent calls timing out with an RPC unavailable error while attempting to query unreachable/unresponsive servers.
To avoid this issue, I am working on wrapping the Get-WinEvent calls in Jobs so that I can apply a configurable timeout to them.
For Get-WinEvent jobs finding multiple events, Receive-Job properly returns a 'System.Object[]' array containing 'System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventLogRecord' objects. If only a single event is found, Receive-Job returns a 'System.Management.Automation.PSObject' object instead.
Without the Job-related code, a Get-WinEvent call finding one event returns a non-array 'System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventLogRecord' object which can easily be wrapped with an array for downstream consumption.
Anyone have a better way to add a timeout to a remote Get-WinEvent call or an explanation/fix for the 'System.Management.Automation.PSObject' being returned instead of a non-array 'System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventLogRecord' object?
The function and some sample calls are shown below:
Function CollectRemoteEvents($the_server,$event_log,$events_to_find,$event_label,$search_start,$search_timeout,$max_event_count){
Try{
$job_info = Start-Job -name GetEvents -scriptblock {param($server,$logname,$eventID,$StartTime,$MaxEvents) Get-WinEvent -ComputerName $server -FilterHashtable #{"logname"=$logname;"id"=$eventID;StartTime=$StartTime} -MaxEvents $MaxEvents} -Arg $the_server,$event_log,$events_to_find,$search_start,$max_event_count
#if the provided timeout value is greater than 0, use it
if($search_timeout -gt 0){
#if the job takes a while, tell it to timeout after ## seconds
$wait_result = Wait-Job -id $job_info.id -timeout $search_timeout
}Else{
#if the timeout was specified as 0, let the job run to completion
$wait_result = Wait-Job -id $job_info.id
}
$current_job_state = Get-Job -id ($job_info.id)
#check if the job has completed before time runs out
if($current_job_state.State -eq "Completed"){
#capture the job object
$job = Get-Job -id ($job_info.id)
#retrieve the output of the job; if the job raises errors, exceptions will be populated into the $joberror variable
#NOTE: the $ is *intentionally* left out of the 'joberror' variable name in the command below
$job_result = $job | Receive-Job -ErrorVariable joberror -ErrorAction Stop
If($joberror -ne "" -And $joberror -ne $null){
#if joberror is not empty, the job failed; log it
# write-host "JobError: '$joberror'" #used for debugging, this would log to file in a production capacity
}Else{
# write-host $job_result.gettype() #used for debugging
return ,$job_result
}
}else{
#the search timed out
# write-host "The event log search timed out." #used for debugging, this would log to file in a production capacity
return $null
}
}Catch [Exception]{
If($_.FullyQualifiedErrorID -eq "NoMatchingEventsFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetWinEventCommand"){
#No logon timeout events were registered since $search_start
write-host "$the_server : No $event_label events were found."
return #()
}Elseif($_.FullyQualifiedErrorID -eq "ParameterArgumentValidationError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetWinEventCommand"){
#"argument validation error", exit the function with a return value indicating failure
write-host "$the_server : Event log retrieval failed, can't check for $event_label events (Argument validation error);"
return $null
}Elseif($_.FullyQualifiedErrorID -eq "System.Diagnostics.Eventing.Reader.EventLogException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.GetWinEventCommand"){
#"the RPC server is unavailable", exit the function with a return value indicating failure
write-host "$the_server : Event log retrieval failed, can't check for $event_label events (RPC server unavailable);"
return $null
}Else{
#if the server logs cannot be retrieved, exit the function with a return value indicating failure
write-host "$the_server : Event log retrieval failed, can't check for $event_label events (Check access/permissions)($($_.FullyQualifiedErrorID));"
return $null
}
}
}
$server_name = "localhost"
$system_event_ID = #(6013)
$app_event_ID = #(1033)
$timeout_check_timespan = (Get-Date).AddMonths(-2)
$WinEvent_timeout = 10 #how long to let the Job run before timing out
$returns_array = CollectRemoteEvents $server_name 'System' $system_event_ID "Label One" $timeout_check_timespan $WinEvent_timeout 5
$returns_non_array = CollectRemoteEvents $server_name 'Application' $app_event_ID "Label Two" $timeout_check_timespan $WinEvent_timeout 1
write-host ""
write-host $returns_array
write-host $returns_array.count
write-host ""
write-host $returns_non_array
write-host $returns_non_array.count
The comma on the main return line is attempt to force an array to be returned (see: Count property of array in PowerShell with pscustomobjects )
I have also tried instantiating an array and then adding the result set to it:
$var = #()
$var += $results
return $var
casting the result set as an array:
return [Array]($results)
and returning the result set as part of an array:
return #($results)
I believe that this is a different issue than the one covered in the 'Function return value in Powershell' proposed solution - in my issue the problem of the object types is present before the function returns.
Uncommenting the following line for debugging purposes
# write-host $job_result.gettype() #used for debugging
Results in the following output being printed:
System.Object[]
System.Management.Automation.PSObject
The System.Object[] line is returned by a Job running a Get-WinEvent query that finds multiple events.
The 'System.Management.Automation.PSObject' line is returned by a Job running a Get-WinEvent query that finds a single event

Answer 1

After lots of googling based upon a suggestion from a Reddit user, it appears that you effectively have to double-wrap the single-object return content to have it end up as an array:
#this *does not* work
return #(#($job_result))
#This works
return , #($job_result)