Hope the majority of time in work isn’t so manic initially (8)
I believe the answer is:
optimism
'hope' is the definition.
(optimism is being hopeful)
'the majority of time in work isn't so manic initially' is the wordplay.
'the majority of' means to remove the last letter (most but not all of the word is used).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'work' becomes 'op' (abbreviation for opus).
'initially' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letters of 'isnt so manic' is 'ism'.
'time' with its final letter taken away is 'tim'.
'op'+'ism'='opism'
'tim' placed inside 'opism' is 'OPTIMISM'.
(Other definitions for optimism that I've seen before include "Hopefulness" , "Feeling that all is going to turn out well" , "Confidence in the future" , "Confident outlook" , "Glass half-full attitude" .)