The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 5 letter word SWEAT BLOOD
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
S
W
E
A
T
B
L
O
O
D
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Work very hard" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case work very hard = sweat blood.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.