It's been a while, but anytime you're at a job where there is little or no advancement for your co-workers, there's a mentality that springs up. You see a lot of people with sullen little souls pounding out their 9 to 5 with little or no hope of seeing anything but their dredging work. When they see someone with ambition in their eyes or plans ahead of them, they instantly lash out in some sort of twisted revenge fantasy.

This can be taken in several ways. I'm not particularly fond of people, but I still adopt a little pity for people in their position. Honestly hating them or retaliating on them is simple reinforcement for their activity to continue or worsen and it shows them that you are indeed a perfect target.

If it does start causing you psychological or emotional harm, then to be perfectly candid you need to have a supercilious and patronizing attitude to them, as if you are suffering them and not the reverse. Give them the impression that you are putting up with them simply long enough to do your job. Once your communication with them is done, do not notice them or their laughing or such. This will provide them with little reinforcement and is a dominant attitude.

I'm sorry. People are not easy to deal with at all in some situations.

-Sin