A recent Debate article by Agalawatta et al. (2020) outlines several important issues faced by those completing the fellowship training in the public sector. As early career psychiatrists who have recently metamorphosised from caterpillars to butterflies, we also faced many of the challenges described in the Debate. We dealt with the challenges in different ways and places (i.e. collectively, we have worked in the private sector and public system as well as temporary locum positions). The Debate article (Agalawatta et al., 2020) made us reflect on why it’s hard to be a butterfly, and we collate our reflections here in the context of moral injury.