A study tested a causal model of job burnout from a communication perspective. Drawing from Linear Force Aggregation Theory, social structure theory, and current burnout literature, the study posited direct relationships between network integration, job-related stress, and cognitive distance between perceptions of self and job. It also hypothesized that cognitive distance would mediate the relationships of network integration and stress to burnout. The subjects, nurses and aides from seven different units of a large children's hospital, completed measures of burnout, cognitive distance, job-related stress, and network integration. Results showed that although the model fit the data, only the path of stress to burnout was significant. The fact that the model was not supported indicates a lack of empirical support for assertions found throughout the burnout literature. (Extensive tables of data are appended.) (Author/FL)