All the time -- in Java, if you use java.util.concurrent, you don't have to deal with much of the complexity -- a LinkedBlockingQueue and producer-consumer pattern will solve 80% of real-world business threading problems just fine.

If you need to go beyond that, you've gotta make sure you understand the java memory model and the way monitors work -- or just put synchronized everywhere -- but that's still pretty straightforward once you get it all straight.