How to turn off the People Pane in Outlook 2010
At the bottom of email messages, sometimes a big part of the message is hidden because there is extra space taken up by the People Pane. If Outlook is not connected to Social media this pane is blank but can be annoying. So this article is how to remove the People Pane.
How to quickly hide it
In Outlook, click on the View tab
Click on People Pane
Select Off from the drop down menu
How to Permanently remove it
The second option is to disable Outlook’s Social Connector Add-in altogether. This too will remove the People Pane from displaying.
In Outlook, click on the File and then select Options.
In the Outlook Options dialog box that appears, select Add-Ins from the left-hand menu.
Click the Go button at the bottom of the screen.
Uncheck the box next to Microsoft Outlook Social Connector and then click on OK.
This info was shamelessly stolen from http://sjcblogs.sanjac.edu/its/2012/01/30/removing-the-people-pane-in-outlook/