diff --git a/src/worker/builder.rs b/src/worker/builder.rs
index f5768216..2a8d5eed 100644
--- a/src/worker/builder.rs
+++ b/src/worker/builder.rs
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ use crate::{
     Error, Job, JobRunner, WorkerId,
 };
 use std::future::Future;
+use std::sync::Arc;
 use tokio::io::{AsyncRead, AsyncWrite, BufStream};
 use tokio::net::TcpStream as TokioStream;
 
@@ -106,6 +107,33 @@ impl<E: 'static> WorkerBuilder<E> {
         self.register(kind, Closure(handler))
     }
 
+    /// Register a _blocking_ (synchronous) handler function for the given job type (`kind`).
+    ///
+    /// This is an analogue of [`register_fn`](WorkerBuilder::register_fn) for compute heavy tasks.
+    /// Internally, `tokio`'s `spawn_blocking` is used when a job arrives whose type matches `kind`,
+    /// and so the `handler` is executed in a dedicated pool for blocking operations. See `Tokio`'s
+    /// [docs](https://docs.rs/tokio/latest/tokio/index.html#cpu-bound-tasks-and-blocking-code) for
+    /// how to set the upper limit on the number of threads in the mentioned pool and other details.
+    ///
+    /// You can mix and match async and blocking handlers in a single `Worker`. However, note that
+    /// there is no active management of the blocking tasks in `tokio`, and so if you end up with more
+    /// CPU-intensive blocking handlers executing at the same time than you have cores, the asynchronous
+    /// handler tasks (and indeed, all tasks) will suffer as a result. If you have a lot of blocking tasks,
+    /// consider using the standard async job handler (which you can register with [`WorkerBuilder::register`]
+    /// or [`WorkerBuilder::register_fn`]) and add explicit code to manage the blocking tasks appropriately.
+    ///
+    /// Also note that only one single handler per job kind is supported. Registering another handler
+    /// for the same job kind will silently override the handler registered previously.
+    pub fn register_blocking_fn<K, H>(mut self, kind: K, handler: H) -> Self
+    where
+        K: Into<String>,
+        H: Fn(Job) -> Result<(), E> + Send + Sync + 'static,
+    {
+        self.callbacks
+            .insert(kind.into(), super::Callback::Sync(Arc::new(handler)));
+        self
+    }
+
     /// Register a handler for the given job type (`kind`).
     ///
     /// Whenever a job whose type matches `kind` is fetched from the Faktory, the given handler
@@ -118,7 +146,8 @@ impl<E: 'static> WorkerBuilder<E> {
         K: Into<String>,
         H: JobRunner<Error = E> + 'static,
     {
-        self.callbacks.insert(kind.into(), Box::new(runner));
+        self.callbacks
+            .insert(kind.into(), super::Callback::Async(Box::new(runner)));
         self
     }
 
diff --git a/src/worker/mod.rs b/src/worker/mod.rs
index cc106e30..76a7da26 100644
--- a/src/worker/mod.rs
+++ b/src/worker/mod.rs
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ use std::sync::{atomic, Arc};
 use std::{error::Error as StdError, sync::atomic::AtomicUsize};
 use tokio::io::{AsyncBufRead, AsyncWrite};
 use tokio::net::TcpStream;
-use tokio::task::{AbortHandle, JoinSet};
+use tokio::task::{spawn_blocking, AbortHandle, JoinError, JoinSet};
 
 mod builder;
 mod health;
@@ -20,7 +20,12 @@ pub(crate) const STATUS_RUNNING: usize = 0;
 pub(crate) const STATUS_QUIET: usize = 1;
 pub(crate) const STATUS_TERMINATING: usize = 2;
 
-type CallbacksRegistry<E> = FnvHashMap<String, runner::BoxedJobRunner<E>>;
+pub(crate) enum Callback<E> {
+    Async(runner::BoxedJobRunner<E>),
+    Sync(Arc<dyn Fn(Job) -> Result<(), E> + Sync + Send + 'static>),
+}
+
+type CallbacksRegistry<E> = FnvHashMap<String, Callback<E>>;
 
 /// `Worker` is used to run a worker that processes jobs provided by Faktory.
 ///
@@ -176,18 +181,28 @@ impl<S: AsyncWrite + Send + Unpin, E> Worker<S, E> {
     }
 }
 
-enum Failed<E: StdError> {
+enum Failed<E: StdError, JE: StdError> {
     Application(E),
+    HandlerPanic(JE),
     BadJobType(String),
 }
 
 impl<S: AsyncBufRead + AsyncWrite + Send + Unpin, E: StdError + 'static + Send> Worker<S, E> {
-    async fn run_job(&mut self, job: Job) -> Result<(), Failed<E>> {
+    async fn run_job(&mut self, job: Job) -> Result<(), Failed<E, JoinError>> {
         let handler = self
             .callbacks
             .get(job.kind())
             .ok_or(Failed::BadJobType(job.kind().to_string()))?;
-        handler.run(job).await.map_err(Failed::Application)
+        match handler {
+            Callback::Async(cb) => cb.run(job).await.map_err(Failed::Application),
+            Callback::Sync(cb) => {
+                let cb = Arc::clone(cb);
+                match spawn_blocking(move || cb(job)).await {
+                    Err(join_error) => Err(Failed::HandlerPanic(join_error)),
+                    Ok(processing_result) => processing_result.map_err(Failed::Application),
+                }
+            }
+        }
     }
 
     async fn report_on_all_workers(&mut self) -> Result<(), Error> {
@@ -274,6 +289,7 @@ impl<S: AsyncBufRead + AsyncWrite + Send + Unpin, E: StdError + 'static + Send>
                 let fail = match e {
                     Failed::BadJobType(jt) => Fail::generic(jid, format!("No handler for {}", jt)),
                     Failed::Application(e) => Fail::generic_with_backtrace(jid, e),
+                    Failed::HandlerPanic(e) => Fail::generic_with_backtrace(jid, e),
                 };
                 self.worker_states.register_failure(worker, fail.clone());
                 self.c.issue(&fail).await?.read_ok().await?;
diff --git a/tests/real/community.rs b/tests/real/community.rs
index 66755421..2e149199 100644
--- a/tests/real/community.rs
+++ b/tests/real/community.rs
@@ -594,3 +594,75 @@ async fn test_jobs_created_with_builder() {
         .unwrap();
     assert!(had_job);
 }
+
+// It is generally not ok to mix blocking and not blocking tasks,
+// we are doing so in this test simply to demonstrate it is _possible_.
+#[tokio::test(flavor = "multi_thread")]
+async fn test_jobs_with_blocking_handlers() {
+    skip_check!();
+
+    let local = "test_jobs_with_blocking_handlers";
+
+    let mut w = Worker::builder()
+        .register_blocking_fn("cpu_intensive", |_j| {
+            // Imagine some compute heavy operations:serializing, sorting, matrix multiplication, etc.
+            std::thread::sleep(Duration::from_millis(1000));
+            Ok::<(), io::Error>(())
+        })
+        .register_fn("io_intensive", |_j| async move {
+            // Imagine fetching data for this user from various origins,
+            // updating an entry on them in the database, and then sending them
+            // an email and pushing a follow-up task on the Faktory queue
+            tokio::time::sleep(Duration::from_millis(100)).await;
+            Ok::<(), io::Error>(())
+        })
+        .register_fn(
+            "general_workload",
+            |_j| async move { Ok::<(), io::Error>(()) },
+        )
+        .connect(None)
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+
+    Client::connect(None)
+        .await
+        .unwrap()
+        .enqueue_many([
+            Job::builder("cpu_intensive").queue(local).build(),
+            Job::builder("io_intensive").queue(local).build(),
+            Job::builder("general_workload").queue(local).build(),
+        ])
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+
+    for _ in 0..2 {
+        assert!(w.run_one(0, &[local]).await.unwrap());
+    }
+}
+
+#[tokio::test(flavor = "multi_thread")]
+async fn test_panic_in_handler() {
+    skip_check!();
+
+    let local = "test_panic_in_handler";
+
+    let mut w = Worker::builder::<io::Error>()
+        .register_blocking_fn("panic", |_j| {
+            panic!("Panic inside the handler...");
+        })
+        .connect(None)
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+
+    Client::connect(None)
+        .await
+        .unwrap()
+        .enqueue(Job::builder("panic").queue(local).build())
+        .await
+        .unwrap();
+
+    // we _did_ consume and process the job, the processing result itself though
+    // was a failure; however, a panic in the handler was "intercepted" and communicated
+    // to the Faktory server via the FAIL command
+    assert!(w.run_one(0, &[local]).await.unwrap());
+}