A deque of a local process in a memory work-stealing implementation may use one or more data structures to perform work. If the local process attempts to add a new value to its deque's circular array when the data structure is full (i.e., an overflow condition occurs), the contents of the data structure are copied to a larger allocated circular array (e.g., a circular array of greater size than the original circular array). The entries in the original, smaller-sized circular array are copied to positions in the now-active, larger-sized circular array, and the system is configured to work with the newly activated circular array. By this technique, the local process is thus provided with space to add the new value.