diff --git a/src/slurmd/slurmstepd/slurmstepd.c b/src/slurmd/slurmstepd/slurmstepd.c
index 9870172c82a8279a80bcb57dc704bb1ebf8c5f87..ae13ff0f1d6adcef99b5ab39609888c355a350c1 100644
--- a/src/slurmd/slurmstepd/slurmstepd.c
+++ b/src/slurmd/slurmstepd/slurmstepd.c
@@ -379,7 +379,7 @@ _got_ack_from_slurmd(int sock)
 {
 	/* If running under valgrind/memcheck, this pipe doesn't work correctly
 	 * so just skip it. */
-#ifndef SLURMSTEPD_MEMCHECK
+#if (SLURMSTEPD_MEMCHECK == 0)
 	int ok;
 	safe_read(sock, &ok, sizeof(int));
 	return;