Acknowledge Eric's gone to work (9)
I believe the answer is:
recognise
'acknowledge' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'eric's gone to work' is the wordplay.
'to work' is an anagram indicator.
'erics'+'gone'='ericsgone'
'ericsgone' with letters rearranged gives 'RECOGNISE'.
(Other definitions for recognise that I've seen before include "Know from having seen before" , "See" , "Identify - know" , "Acknowledge value" , "Identify as previously known" .)