diff --git a/hack/update-gofmt.sh b/hack/update-gofmt.sh
index c71fe71a02..83800c6eee 100755
--- a/hack/update-gofmt.sh
+++ b/hack/update-gofmt.sh
@@ -34,11 +34,10 @@ find_files() {
         -o -wholename './_output' \
         -o -wholename './_gopath' \
         -o -wholename './release' \
-        -o -wholename './staging' \
         -o -wholename './target' \
         -o -wholename '*/third_party/*' \
         -o -wholename '*/vendor/*' \
-        -o -wholename './staging' \
+        -o -wholename './staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/*vendor/*' \
       \) -prune \
     \) -name '*.go'
 }
diff --git a/hack/verify-gofmt.sh b/hack/verify-gofmt.sh
index ee6e420ec2..af1b50675c 100755
--- a/hack/verify-gofmt.sh
+++ b/hack/verify-gofmt.sh
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ find_files() {
         -o -wholename './target' \
         -o -wholename '*/third_party/*' \
         -o -wholename '*/vendor/*' \
-        -o -wholename './staging' \
+        -o -wholename './staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/*vendor/*' \
         -o -wholename '*/bindata.go' \
       \) -prune \
     \) -name '*.go'
diff --git a/hack/verify-pkg-names.sh b/hack/verify-pkg-names.sh
index 75fda42536..79bb85f684 100755
--- a/hack/verify-pkg-names.sh
+++ b/hack/verify-pkg-names.sh
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ source "${KUBE_ROOT}/hack/lib/init.sh"
 kube::golang::verify_go_version
 
 cd "${KUBE_ROOT}"
-if git --no-pager grep -E $'^(import |\t)[a-z]+[A-Z_][a-zA-Z]* "[^"]+"$' -- '**/*.go' ':(exclude)vendor/*' ':(exclude)staging/*'; then
+if git --no-pager grep -E $'^(import |\t)[a-z]+[A-Z_][a-zA-Z]* "[^"]+"$' -- '**/*.go' ':(exclude)vendor/*' ':(exclude)staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/*vendor/*'; then
   echo "!!! Some package aliases break go conventions."
   echo "To fix these errors, do not use capitalized or underlined characters"
   echo "in pkg aliases. Refer to https://blog.golang.org/package-names for more info."
diff --git a/hack/verify-readonly-packages.sh b/hack/verify-readonly-packages.sh
index 92d078b126..babf558e80 100755
--- a/hack/verify-readonly-packages.sh
+++ b/hack/verify-readonly-packages.sh
@@ -37,7 +37,8 @@ find_files() {
         -o -wholename './target' \
         -o -wholename '*/third_party/*' \
         -o -wholename '*/vendor/*' \
-        -o -wholename './staging' \
+        -o -wholename './staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/*vendor/*' \
+        -o -wholename './staging/src/k8s.io/client-go/pkg/*' \
       \) -prune \
     \) -name '.readonly'
 }