Dejected male — work is hard (6)
I believe the answer is:
mopish
'dejected' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'male work is hard' is the wordplay.
'male' becomes 'm' (common abbreviation).
'work' becomes 'op' (abbreviation for opus).
'hard' becomes 'h'.
'm'+'op'+'is'+'h'='MOPISH'
(Other definitions for mopish that I've seen before include "dejected" , "low on spirits" , "Listless" , "down in the dumps" , "Somewhat depressed" .)