diff --git a/javaagent-api/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/javaagent/instrumentation/api/concurrent/ExecutorInstrumentationUtils.java b/javaagent-api/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/javaagent/instrumentation/api/concurrent/ExecutorInstrumentationUtils.java
index 41f56843c1..44900f6a4e 100644
--- a/javaagent-api/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/javaagent/instrumentation/api/concurrent/ExecutorInstrumentationUtils.java
+++ b/javaagent-api/src/main/java/io/opentelemetry/javaagent/instrumentation/api/concurrent/ExecutorInstrumentationUtils.java
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
 
 package io.opentelemetry.javaagent.instrumentation.api.concurrent;
 
-import io.opentelemetry.api.trace.Span;
 import io.opentelemetry.context.Context;
 import io.opentelemetry.instrumentation.api.context.ContextPropagationDebug;
 import io.opentelemetry.javaagent.instrumentation.api.ContextStore;
@@ -26,11 +25,12 @@ public class ExecutorInstrumentationUtils {
       return false;
     }
 
-    Span span = Span.current();
     Class<?> taskClass = task.getClass();
     Class<?> enclosingClass = taskClass.getEnclosingClass();
 
-    return span.getSpanContext().isValid()
+    // not much point in propagating root context
+    // plus it causes failures under otel.internal.failOnContextLeak=true
+    return Context.current() != Context.root()
         // TODO Workaround for
         // https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java-instrumentation/issues/787
         && !taskClass.getName().equals("org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor")