diff --git a/test/core/bad_client/bad_client.c b/test/core/bad_client/bad_client.c
index 48534ce0605..938da7a3e14 100644
--- a/test/core/bad_client/bad_client.c
+++ b/test/core/bad_client/bad_client.c
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ void grpc_run_bad_client_test(grpc_bad_client_server_side_validator validator,
       gpr_slice_from_copied_buffer(client_payload, client_payload_length);
   gpr_slice_buffer outgoing;
   grpc_iomgr_closure done_write_closure;
-  grpc_workqueue *workqueue = grpc_workqueue_create();
+  grpc_workqueue *workqueue;
 
   hex = gpr_dump(client_payload, client_payload_length,
                  GPR_DUMP_HEX | GPR_DUMP_ASCII);
@@ -101,6 +101,8 @@ void grpc_run_bad_client_test(grpc_bad_client_server_side_validator validator,
   /* Init grpc */
   grpc_init();
 
+  workqueue = grpc_workqueue_create();
+
   /* Create endpoints */
   sfd = grpc_iomgr_create_endpoint_pair("fixture", 65536, workqueue);
 
diff --git a/test/core/end2end/fixtures/h2_sockpair+trace.c b/test/core/end2end/fixtures/h2_sockpair+trace.c
index 16dc7044051..919a5065213 100644
--- a/test/core/end2end/fixtures/h2_sockpair+trace.c
+++ b/test/core/end2end/fixtures/h2_sockpair+trace.c
@@ -171,6 +171,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv) {
     grpc_end2end_tests(configs[i]);
   }
 
+  grpc_workqueue_flush(g_workqueue, 1);
   GRPC_WORKQUEUE_UNREF(g_workqueue, "destroy");
   grpc_shutdown();
 
diff --git a/test/core/end2end/fixtures/h2_sockpair_1byte.c b/test/core/end2end/fixtures/h2_sockpair_1byte.c
index 2a3002bc579..44bb4c5dc0e 100644
--- a/test/core/end2end/fixtures/h2_sockpair_1byte.c
+++ b/test/core/end2end/fixtures/h2_sockpair_1byte.c
@@ -157,6 +157,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv) {
     grpc_end2end_tests(configs[i]);
   }
 
+  grpc_workqueue_flush(g_workqueue, 1);
   GRPC_WORKQUEUE_UNREF(g_workqueue, "destroy");
   grpc_shutdown();