diff --git a/runners/google-cloud-dataflow-java/worker/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/runners/dataflow/worker/StreamingDataflowWorker.java b/runners/google-cloud-dataflow-java/worker/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/runners/dataflow/worker/StreamingDataflowWorker.java
index 9f822f80a3bdc..9289cb6e54ec0 100644
--- a/runners/google-cloud-dataflow-java/worker/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/runners/dataflow/worker/StreamingDataflowWorker.java
+++ b/runners/google-cloud-dataflow-java/worker/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/runners/dataflow/worker/StreamingDataflowWorker.java
@@ -609,7 +609,7 @@ public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
     MetricsEnvironment.setProcessWideContainer(new MetricsLogger(null));
 
     if (options.isEnableStreamingEngine()
-        && DataflowRunner.hasExperiment(options, "enable_per_worker_metrics")) {
+        && !DataflowRunner.hasExperiment(options, "disable_per_worker_metrics")) {
       enableBigQueryMetrics();
     }