diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c8a3aeae2..41b280aad 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -17,6 +17,9 @@ strip_size. The strip_size rpc param is deprecated.
 Added spdk_thread_has_pollers() function to verify if there are
 any registered pollers to be run on the thread.
 
+Added spdk_thread_is_idle() function to check if there are any scheduled operations
+to be performed on the thread at given time.
+
 ## v19.01:
 
 ### ocf bdev
diff --git a/examples/bdev/fio_plugin/fio_plugin.c b/examples/bdev/fio_plugin/fio_plugin.c
index 96f029500..1fba71854 100644
--- a/examples/bdev/fio_plugin/fio_plugin.c
+++ b/examples/bdev/fio_plugin/fio_plugin.c
@@ -140,7 +140,9 @@ spdk_fio_cleanup_thread(struct spdk_fio_thread *fio_thread)
 {
 	spdk_thread_send_msg(fio_thread->thread, spdk_fio_bdev_close_targets, fio_thread);
 
-	while (spdk_fio_poll_thread(fio_thread) > 0) {}
+	while (!spdk_thread_is_idle(fio_thread->thread)) {
+		spdk_fio_poll_thread(fio_thread);
+	}
 
 	spdk_set_thread(fio_thread->thread);
 
@@ -330,9 +332,7 @@ spdk_init_thread_poll(void *arg)
 
 	do {
 		spdk_fio_poll_thread(fio_thread);
-	} while (!done);
-
-	while (spdk_fio_poll_thread(fio_thread) > 0) {};
+	} while (!done && !spdk_thread_is_idle(fio_thread->thread));
 
 	spdk_fio_cleanup_thread(fio_thread);
 
diff --git a/include/spdk/thread.h b/include/spdk/thread.h
index 2b864df42..26e589486 100644
--- a/include/spdk/thread.h
+++ b/include/spdk/thread.h
@@ -277,6 +277,15 @@ int spdk_thread_has_active_pollers(struct spdk_thread *thread);
  */
 bool spdk_thread_has_pollers(struct spdk_thread *thread);
 
+/**
+ * Returns whether there are scheduled operations to be run on the thread.
+ *
+ * \param thread The thread to check.
+ *
+ * \return true if there are no scheduled operations, false otherwise.
+ */
+bool spdk_thread_is_idle(struct spdk_thread *thread);
+
 /**
  * Get count of allocated threads.
  */
diff --git a/lib/thread/thread.c b/lib/thread/thread.c
index f4231bf44..33de40ab6 100644
--- a/lib/thread/thread.c
+++ b/lib/thread/thread.c
@@ -560,6 +560,17 @@ spdk_thread_has_pollers(struct spdk_thread *thread)
 	return true;
 }
 
+bool
+spdk_thread_is_idle(struct spdk_thread *thread)
+{
+	if (spdk_ring_count(thread->messages) ||
+	    spdk_thread_has_pollers(thread)) {
+		return false;
+	}
+
+	return true;
+}
+
 uint32_t
 spdk_thread_get_count(void)
 {