Secretary left without the FT is livid (4)
I believe the answer is:
pale
'livid' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'secretary left without the ft' is the wordplay.
'secretary' becomes 'pa' (abbreviation for personal assistant).
'without' is a deletion indicator.
'left' with 'ft' removed is 'le'.
'pa'+'le'='PALE'
'is' is the link.
(Other definitions for pale that I've seen before include "Containing little colour" , "Whitish" , "Stake, lacking colour" , "livid" , "Lightly coloured" .)