diff --git a/distributed/tests/test_stress.py b/distributed/tests/test_stress.py
index e416d5b2ad..c824fda85a 100644
--- a/distributed/tests/test_stress.py
+++ b/distributed/tests/test_stress.py
@@ -175,9 +175,9 @@ def test_stress_communication(c, s, *workers):
         lim = 8192
         if soft < lim:
             resource.setrlimit(resource.RLIMIT_NOFILE, (lim, max(hard, lim)))
-        except Exception as e:
-            pytest.skip("file descriptor limit too low and can't be increased :"
-                        + str(e))
+    except Exception as e:
+        pytest.skip("file descriptor limit too low and can't be increased :"
+                    + str(e))
 
     n = 40
     xs = [da.random.random((100, 100), chunks=(5, 5)) for i in range(n)]
diff --git a/distributed/worker.py b/distributed/worker.py
index bd993e332e..e05bfa8446 100644
--- a/distributed/worker.py
+++ b/distributed/worker.py
@@ -101,7 +101,6 @@ def __init__(self, scheduler_ip, scheduler_port, ip=None, ncores=None,
         self.status = None
         self.reconnect = reconnect
         self.executor = executor or ThreadPoolExecutor(self.ncores)
-        self.admin_executor = ThreadPoolExecutor(2)
         self.scheduler = rpc(ip=scheduler_ip, port=scheduler_port)
         self.name = name
         self.heartbeat_interval = heartbeat_interval
@@ -248,7 +247,6 @@ def _close(self, report=True, timeout=10):
                         io_loop=self.loop)
         self.scheduler.close_rpc()
         self.executor.shutdown()
-        self.admin_executor.shutdown()
         if os.path.exists(self.local_dir):
             shutil.rmtree(self.local_dir)
 
@@ -360,22 +358,12 @@ def delete_data(self, stream=None, keys=None, report=True):
                                               keys=list(keys))
         raise Return('OK')
 
-    def _get_data(self, keys):
-        return {k: to_serialize(self.data[k]) for k in keys}
-
     @gen.coroutine
     def get_data(self, stream, keys=None, who=None):
         start = time()
 
-        nbytes = {k: self.nbytes.get(k) for k in keys
-                    if self.task_state.get(k) == 'memory'
-                    or self.dep_state.get(k) == 'memory'}
-        if all(k in self.data.fast for k in nbytes) or len(nbytes) > 100:
-            msg = self._get_data(nbytes)
-        else:
-            msg = yield self.admin_executor.submit(self._get_data, nbytes)
-
         msg = {k: to_serialize(self.data[k]) for k in keys if k in self.data}
+        nbytes = {k: self.nbytes.get(k) for k in keys if k in self.data}
         stop = time()
         if self.digests is not None:
             self.digests['get-data-load-duration'].add(stop - start)