Shed tears about working for a mate (5)
I believe the answer is:
crony
'a mate' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'shed tears about working' is the wordplay.
'shed tears' becomes 'cry' (I've seen this before).
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'working' becomes 'on'.
'cry' placed around 'on' is 'CRONY'.
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for crony that I've seen before include "Corny (anag.)" , "China" , "Sidekick" , "Intimate companion" , "Close friend" .)