diff --git a/src/networking.c b/src/networking.c
index cd241dac2..17d6b1866 100644
--- a/src/networking.c
+++ b/src/networking.c
@@ -2491,24 +2491,34 @@ void *IOThreadMain(void *myid) {
     long id = (unsigned long)myid;
 
     while(1) {
-        /* ... Wait for start ... */
-        pthread_mutex_lock(&io_threads_mutex[id]);
-        if (io_threads_pending[id]) {
-            if (tio_debug) printf("[%ld] %d to handle\n", id, (int)listLength(io_threads_list[id]));
-
-            /* ... Process ... */
-            listIter li;
-            listNode *ln;
-            listRewind(io_threads_list[id],&li);
-            while((ln = listNext(&li))) {
-                client *c = listNodeValue(ln);
-                writeToClient(c->fd,c,0);
-                io_threads_pending[id]--;
-            }
-            listEmpty(io_threads_list[id]);
+        /* Wait for start */
+        for (int j = 0; j < 1000000; j++) {
+            if (io_threads_pending[id] != 0) break;
         }
 
-        pthread_mutex_unlock(&io_threads_mutex[id]);
+        /* Give the main thread a chance to stop this thread. */
+        if (io_threads_pending[id] == 0) {
+            pthread_mutex_lock(&io_threads_mutex[id]);
+            pthread_mutex_unlock(&io_threads_mutex[id]);
+            continue;
+        }
+
+        serverAssert(io_threads_pending[id] != 0);
+
+        if (tio_debug) printf("[%ld] %d to handle\n", id, (int)listLength(io_threads_list[id]));
+
+        /* Process: note that the main thread will never touch our list
+         * before we drop the pending count to 0. */
+        listIter li;
+        listNode *ln;
+        listRewind(io_threads_list[id],&li);
+        while((ln = listNext(&li))) {
+            client *c = listNodeValue(ln);
+            writeToClient(c->fd,c,0);
+        }
+        listEmpty(io_threads_list[id]);
+        io_threads_pending[id] = 0;
+
         if (tio_debug) printf("[%ld] Done\n", id);
     }
 }
@@ -2572,13 +2582,17 @@ int handleClientsWithPendingWritesUsingThreads(void) {
         client *c = listNodeValue(ln);
         c->flags &= ~CLIENT_PENDING_WRITE;
         int target_id = item_id % server.io_threads_num;
-        pthread_mutex_lock(&io_threads_mutex[target_id]);
         listAddNodeTail(io_threads_list[target_id],c);
-        io_threads_pending[target_id]++;
-        pthread_mutex_unlock(&io_threads_mutex[target_id]);
         item_id++;
     }
 
+    /* Give the start condition to the waiting threads, by setting the
+     * start condition atomic var. */
+    for (int j = 0; j < server.io_threads_num; j++) {
+        int count = listLength(io_threads_list[j]);
+        io_threads_pending[j] = count;
+    }
+
     /* Wait for all threads to end their work. */
     while(1) {
         unsigned long pending = 0;