A Columbia psychology professor says Gen Z should accept that stress and anxiety at work are normal life experiences: 'We should all feel stressed sometimes'

• Gen Z workers are losing sight that feeling stressed or sad are "normal life experiences." 
• Kathleen Pike, a professor at Columbia, said these feelings aren't necessarily signs of mental illness. 
• Feeling stressed out or anxious can actually help you focus or identify problems you can solve. 

Gen Z appear to be struggling more with stress and anxiety at work than previous generations, but a prominent psychologist says they’re forgetting that some of these emotions are part of "normal life experiences."

Kathleen Pike, a Columbia University psychology professor and president and CEO of One Mind at Work, told Business Insider that as discussions of mental health at work grow, young people are struggling to distinguish between normal emotions and mental illness.