diff --git a/src/workstealing.jl b/src/workstealing.jl
index ee18c19..679811e 100644
--- a/src/workstealing.jl
+++ b/src/workstealing.jl
@@ -30,6 +30,8 @@ Base.@propagate_inbounds function Base.setindex!(A::CircularVector, v, i::Int)
     A.data[indexof(A, i)] = v
 end
 
+Base.pointer(A::CircularVector, i::Integer) = pointer(A.data, indexof(A, i))
+
 function tryresize(A::CircularVector, log2inc::Integer, indices)
     log2length = A.log2length + log2inc
     n = 1 << log2length
@@ -134,11 +136,26 @@ function ConcurrentCollections.trypopfirst!(deque::WorkStealingDeque)
     if current_size <= 0
         return nothing
     end
-    r = Some(buffer[top])
-    if @atomicreplace(deque.top, top => top + 1)[2]
-        return r
+    if Base.allocatedinline(eltype(buffer))
+        r = Some(buffer[top])
+        if @atomicreplace(deque.top, top => top + 1)[2]
+            return r
+        else
+            return nothing
+        end
     else
-        return nothing
+        ptr = UnsafeAtomics.load(Ptr{Ptr{Cvoid}}(pointer(buffer, top)), monotonic)
+        if @atomicreplace(deque.top, top => top + 1)[2]
+            # Safety: The above CAS verifies that the slot `buffer[top]`
+            # contained the valid element. We can now materialize it as a Julia
+            # value.
+            GC.@preserve buffer begin
+                r = Some(unsafe_pointer_to_objref(ptr))
+            end
+            return r
+        else
+            return nothing
+        end
     end
 end
 
diff --git a/test/ConcurrentCollectionsTests/src/test_work_stealing_deque.jl b/test/ConcurrentCollectionsTests/src/test_work_stealing_deque.jl
index c737c90..773212a 100644
--- a/test/ConcurrentCollectionsTests/src/test_work_stealing_deque.jl
+++ b/test/ConcurrentCollectionsTests/src/test_work_stealing_deque.jl
@@ -28,18 +28,19 @@ function random_pushpop(xs, ntasks = Threads.nthreads() - 1)
     deque = WorkStealingDeque{eltype(xs)}()
 
     local tasks, zs
-    done = Threads.Atomic{Bool}(false)
     try
         tasks = map(1:ntasks) do _
             Threads.@spawn begin
                 local ys = eltype(xs)[]
                 while true
-                    r = trypopfirst!(deque)
+                    local r = trypopfirst!(deque)
                     if r === nothing
-                        done[] && break
+                        GC.safepoint()
                         continue
                     end
-                    push!(ys, something(r))
+                    local y = something(r)
+                    y == -1 && break
+                    push!(ys, y)
                 end
                 ys
             end
@@ -51,20 +52,25 @@ function random_pushpop(xs, ntasks = Threads.nthreads() - 1)
             # continue
             if mod(i, 8) == 0
                 r = trypop!(deque)
+                GC.safepoint()
                 r === nothing && continue
                 push!(zs, something(r))
             end
         end
     finally
-        done[] = true
+        for _ in 1:ntasks
+            push!(deque, -1)
+        end
     end
 
     return zs, fetch.(tasks)
 end
 
 function test_random_push_pop()
-    @testset for T in [Int, Any, Int, Any]
-        test_random_push_pop(T)
+    @testset for trial in 1:100
+        @testset for T in [Int, Any]
+            test_random_push_pop(T)
+        end
     end
 end
 
@@ -77,8 +83,11 @@ function test_random_push_pop(T::Type, xs = 1:2^10)
     @test all(allunique, yss)
     @debug "random_pushpop(xs)" length(zs) length.(yss)
     ys = sort!(foldl(append!, yss; init = copy(zs)))
-    @debug "random_pushpop(xs)" setdiff(ys, xs) setdiff(xs, ys) length(xs) length(ys)
+    @test length(ys) == length(xs)
+    @test setdiff(ys, xs) == []
+    @test setdiff(xs, ys) == []
     @test ys == xs
+    return (; zs, yss)
 end
 
 end  # module