i have decided that working for and with people you like is almost more important than the job that you do. i think if you worked with the most awesome-est, coolest, funnest, est people in the world could make ditch digging bearable. However, working with people who you have nothing in common with, do not like, do not respect and who try with every breath in their body to make YOUR day miserable for 8 hours, or 4 hours or however long your shift is can make even your dream job suck; and suck hard. I think the downers of the world can also just suck the joy out of the room. lets say you work in a plant and you don't really have the time to interact with your coworkers, you are too busy putting widgets in the gizmos, because widget/gizmo construction is your job. and you work really hard at your job and try to do the best you can do at wigdeting. your boss knows you work hard and make awesome widgets (and gizmos for that matter) and you are compensated accordingly. then you look across the factory floor and see a half dozen of your coworkers coming in late, drinking coffee when they should be widgeting, leaving early for lunch, and in general, being douchebags.

your bosses see that all your fellow factory workers are being lazy waste of space. they do nothing. happy fun work environment. if you pick up the slack and do all the widgeting for everyone else, they get more time to slack. you can tell your bosses "hey do you notice all the fellow factory frannies are doing less than me?" of course your boss does, he's the foreman of the factory and sits up in a big glass office and has no choice but to see the fact that the only person working is you.
so going to your boss really only accomplishes making you look bad, telling your boss two things:

1. i dont think you are doing your job (bossing)
2. look how much better at your job i can do because i see the problem and am doing something (which you are not)by coming to you to solve the problem that you are not solving on your own...so you are the bad person.

at the end of the day it is just better for you to suffer in silence, hate your job (or love the job and hate the environment) collect your paycheck and hope to god you can outlast all the shitty employees.

that being said, it is that one coworker, who can totally make your day awesome.