He keeps records for one who breaks down at work, we hear (8)
I believe the answer is:
annalist
'he keeps records for one who breaks down at work we hear' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'he keeps records for one' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'he' could be 'ali' and 'ali' is found within the answer.
'one' could be 'an' (an apple is one apple) and 'an' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for annalist that I've seen before include "One making records" , "One who makes records" , "record producer" , "Person creating records" , "she makes record" .)