diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 79e98ff2adf1..004824c9d67e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -76,6 +76,8 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
     timeout-minutes: 60
     if: ${{ ((github.event_name != 'repository_dispatch') && (github.event.action != 'update-docs')) }}
+    env:
+      CI_RELEASE_MODE: 1 # Needed to enable optimizers
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
@@ -117,7 +119,7 @@ jobs:
           distribution: temurin
           java-version: 17
           check-latest: true
-          
+
       - name: Install NodeJS
         uses: actions/setup-node@v3
         with:
@@ -322,7 +324,7 @@ jobs:
         with:
           branch: gh-pages
           folder: ./website-artifact
-          
+
   update-docs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     if: ${{ ((github.event_name == 'repository_dispatch') && (github.event.action == 'update-docs')) }}
@@ -342,7 +344,7 @@ jobs:
           git add package.json
           commit_message="Update $package_name to $package_version"
           git commit -m "$commit_message" || echo "No changes to commit"
-          
+
       - name: Create Pull Request to Update Docs
         uses: peter-evans/create-pull-request@v4.2.4
         with:
diff --git a/project/BuildHelper.scala b/project/BuildHelper.scala
index 999515aa3fc6..38bb8640fa23 100644
--- a/project/BuildHelper.scala
+++ b/project/BuildHelper.scala
@@ -41,18 +41,19 @@ object BuildHelper {
     "-Ywarn-value-discard"
   )
 
-  private def optimizerOptions(optimize: Boolean) =
-    if (optimize)
-      Seq(
+  private def optimizerOptions(optimize: Boolean, isScala213: Boolean) =
+    if (optimize) {
+      // We get some weird errors when trying to inline Scala 2.12 std lib
+      val inlineScala = if (isScala213) Seq("-opt-inline-from:scala.**") else Nil
+      inlineScala ++ Seq(
         "-opt:l:method",
         "-opt:l:inline",
         "-opt-inline-from:zio.**",
-        "-opt-inline-from:scala.**",
         // To remove calls to `assert` in releases. Assertions are level 2000
         "-Xelide-below",
         "2001"
       )
-    else Nil
+    } else Nil
 
   def buildInfoSettings(packageName: String) =
     Seq(
@@ -124,7 +125,7 @@ object BuildHelper {
         Seq(
           "-Ywarn-unused:params,-implicits",
           "-Ybackend-parallelism:4"
-        ) ++ std2xOptions ++ optimizerOptions(optimize)
+        ) ++ std2xOptions ++ optimizerOptions(optimize, isScala213 = true)
       case Some((2, 12)) =>
         Seq(
           "-opt-warnings",
@@ -141,7 +142,7 @@ object BuildHelper {
           "-Xsource:2.13",
           "-Xmax-classfile-name",
           "242"
-        ) ++ std2xOptions ++ optimizerOptions(optimize)
+        ) ++ std2xOptions ++ optimizerOptions(optimize, isScala213 = false)
       case _ => Seq.empty
     }