diff --git a/build_packages b/build_packages
index fe1477a..6a9f5f9 100755
--- a/build_packages
+++ b/build_packages
@@ -304,6 +304,31 @@
 # cros_workon packages always have to be rebuilt.
 FORCE_LOCAL_BUILD_PKGS+=( "${CROS_WORKON_PKGS[@]}" )
 
+# Any package that directly depends on an active cros_workon package also needs
+# to be rebuilt in order to be correctly built against the current set of
+# changes a user may have made to the cros_workon package.
+if [[ ${#CROS_WORKON_PKGS[@]} -gt 0 ]]; then
+  # Collect all installed packages that depend on active cros_workon packages.
+  WORKON_PKG_CONSUMERS=()
+  mapfile -t WORKON_PKG_CONSUMERS < <( \
+    equery-${FLAGS_board} -q depends "${CROS_WORKON_PKGS[@]}" | sort -u )
+
+  # Transform this list of packages with versions in to a list of just
+  # $CATEGORY/$NAME entries, since we don't want to pass packages with explicit
+  # version numbers as arguments to `emerge`.
+  if [[ ${#WORKON_PKG_CONSUMERS[@]} -gt 0 ]]; then
+    WORKON_REBUILD_PKGS=()
+    mapfile -t WORKON_REBUILD_PKGS < <( \
+      equery-${FLAGS_board} list -p -o --format='$category/$name' \
+        "${WORKON_PKG_CONSUMERS[@]}" | sort -u )
+
+    info "The following packages depend directly on an active" \
+      "cros_workon package and will be rebuilt: ${WORKON_REBUILD_PKGS[*]}"
+
+    FORCE_LOCAL_BUILD_PKGS+=( "${WORKON_REBUILD_PKGS[@]}" )
+  fi
+fi
+
 if [[ -n "${FLAGS_board_root}" ]]; then
   export ROOT="${FLAGS_board_root}"
   export PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="${ROOT}"