diff --git a/jstests/concurrency/fsm_libs/resmoke_runner.js b/jstests/concurrency/fsm_libs/resmoke_runner.js
index d94fd4e31c..af0afca2bb 100644
--- a/jstests/concurrency/fsm_libs/resmoke_runner.js
+++ b/jstests/concurrency/fsm_libs/resmoke_runner.js
@@ -104,6 +104,15 @@
                 cleanup.push(workload);
             });

+            // After the $config.setup() function has been called, it is safe for the stepdown
+            // thread to start running. The main thread won't attempt to interact with the cluster
+            // until all of the spawned worker threads have finished.
+            //
+            // TODO: Call writeFile('./stepdown_permitted', '') function to indicate that the
+            // stepdown thread can run. It is unnecessary for the stepdown thread to indicate that
+            // it is going to start running because it will eventually after the worker threads have
+            // started.
+
             // Since the worker threads may be running with causal consistency enabled, we set the
             // initial clusterTime and initial operationTime for the sessions they'll create so that
             // they are guaranteed to observe the effects of the workload's $config.setup() function
@@ -128,17 +137,34 @@
             }

             try {
-                // Start this set of worker threads.
-                threadMgr.spawnAll(cluster, executionOptions);
-                // Allow 20% of the threads to fail. This allows the workloads to run on
-                // underpowered test hosts.
-                threadMgr.checkFailed(0.2);
+                try {
+                    // Start this set of worker threads.
+                    threadMgr.spawnAll(cluster, executionOptions);
+                    // Allow 20% of the threads to fail. This allows the workloads to run on
+                    // underpowered test hosts.
+                    threadMgr.checkFailed(0.2);
+                } finally {
+                    // Threads must be joined before destruction, so do this even in the presence of
+                    // exceptions.
+                    errors.push(...threadMgr.joinAll().map(
+                        e => new WorkloadFailure(
+                            e.err, e.stack, e.tid, 'Foreground ' + e.workloads.join(' '))));
+                }
             } finally {
-                // Threads must be joined before destruction, so do this even in the presence of
-                // exceptions.
-                errors.push(...threadMgr.joinAll().map(
-                    e => new WorkloadFailure(
-                        e.err, e.stack, e.tid, 'Foreground ' + e.workloads.join(' '))));
+                // Until we are guaranteed that the stepdown thread isn't running, it isn't safe for
+                // the $config.teardown() function to be called. We should signal to resmoke.py that
+                // the stepdown thread should stop running and wait for the stepdown thread to
+                // signal that it has stopped.
+                //
+                // TODO: Call removeFile('./stepdown_permitted') so the next time the stepdown
+                // thread checks to see if it should keep running that it instead stops stepping
+                // down the cluster and creates a file named "./stepdown_off".
+                //
+                // TODO: Call the ls() function inside of an assert.soon() / assert.soonNoExcept()
+                // and wait for the "./stepdown_off" file to be created. assert.soonNoExcept()
+                // should probably be used so that an I/O-related error from attempting to list the
+                // contents of the directory while the file is being created doesn't lead to a
+                // JavaScript exception that causes the test to fail.
             }
         } finally {
             // Call each workload's teardown function. After all teardowns have completed check if