diff --git a/hack/verify-generated-protobuf.sh b/hack/verify-generated-protobuf.sh
index 8fcdcae61ac..b1cb7d12ef6 100755
--- a/hack/verify-generated-protobuf.sh
+++ b/hack/verify-generated-protobuf.sh
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ trap "cleanup" EXIT SIGINT
 cleanup
 for APIROOT in ${APIROOTS}; do
   mkdir -p "${_tmp}/${APIROOT}"
-  cp -a -T "${KUBE_ROOT}/${APIROOT}" "${_tmp}/${APIROOT}"
+  cp -a "${KUBE_ROOT}/${APIROOT}"/* "${_tmp}/${APIROOT}/"
 done
 
 KUBE_VERBOSE=3 "${KUBE_ROOT}/hack/update-generated-protobuf.sh"
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ for APIROOT in ${APIROOTS}; do
   echo "diffing ${APIROOT} against freshly generated protobuf"
   ret=0
   diff -Naupr -I 'Auto generated by' -x 'zz_generated.*' "${KUBE_ROOT}/${APIROOT}" "${TMP_APIROOT}" || ret=$?
-  cp -a -T "${TMP_APIROOT}" "${KUBE_ROOT}/${APIROOT}"
+  cp -a "${TMP_APIROOT}"/* "${KUBE_ROOT}/${APIROOT}/"
   if [[ $ret -eq 0 ]]; then
     echo "${APIROOT} up to date."
   else