Assigned work, heading off to find shade (4)
I believe the answer is:
tint
'shade' is the definition.
(I know that shade is a type of shade)
'assigned work heading off to' is the wordplay.
'assigned work' becomes 'tin' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'heading off' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'to' is 't'.
'tin'+'t'='TINT'
'find' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tint that I've seen before include "A slight shade of colour" , "Quality of colour" , "Hair dye" , "work for coiffeuse?" , "(Softer variety of) colour" .)