diff --git a/FWCore/Concurrency/interface/LimitedTaskQueue.h b/FWCore/Concurrency/interface/LimitedTaskQueue.h
index 5d436c8b7f51b..e792179dd7c2f 100644
--- a/FWCore/Concurrency/interface/LimitedTaskQueue.h
+++ b/FWCore/Concurrency/interface/LimitedTaskQueue.h
@@ -98,7 +98,9 @@ namespace edm {
          
          bool resume() {
             if(m_queue) {
-               return m_queue->resume();
+               auto q = m_queue;
+               m_queue = nullptr;
+               return q->resume();
             }
             return false;
          }
diff --git a/FWCore/Concurrency/interface/SerialTaskQueue.h b/FWCore/Concurrency/interface/SerialTaskQueue.h
index 6395a328562fc..ab07c4919ecd0 100644
--- a/FWCore/Concurrency/interface/SerialTaskQueue.h
+++ b/FWCore/Concurrency/interface/SerialTaskQueue.h
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ namespace edm {
       /**\return true if the queue is paused
        * \sa pause(), resume()
        */
-      bool isPaused() const { return m_pauseCount.load()==0;}
+      bool isPaused() const { return m_pauseCount.load()!=0;}
       
       // ---------- member functions ---------------------------
       /// Pauses processing of additional tasks from the queue.