The new maid's left, having been unhappy (6)
I believe the answer is:
dismal
'unhappy' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'the new maid's left' is the wordplay.
'the new' indicates an anagram.
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'maids' with letters rearranged gives 'disma'.
'disma'+'l'='DISMAL'
'having been' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dismal that I've seen before include "Gloomy and depressing like winter weather" , "Depressing; dreary" , "Dreary, cheerless" , "'Gloomy, grim (6)'" , "down in the dumps" .)