diff --git a/lifecycle/gunicorn.conf.py b/lifecycle/gunicorn.conf.py
index ac29c8230..8aaff4ac5 100644
--- a/lifecycle/gunicorn.conf.py
+++ b/lifecycle/gunicorn.conf.py
@@ -54,8 +54,9 @@ logconfig_dict = {
 # if we're running in kubernetes, use fixed workers because we can scale with more pods
 # otherwise (assume docker-compose), use as much as we can
 if SERVICE_HOST_ENV_NAME in os.environ:
-    workers = 2
+    default_workers = 2
 else:
     default_workers = max(cpu_count() * 0.25, 1) + 1  # Minimum of 2 workers
-    workers = int(os.environ.get("WORKERS", default_workers))
+
+workers = int(os.environ.get("WORKERS", default_workers))
 threads = int(os.environ.get("THREADS", 4))