Get rid of annoying “People Pane” in Outlook

I wouldn’t mind the “People Pane”, except that in our organization is shows nothing useful. Moreover for a reason I cannot fathom, it always gets opened up, taking enormous reading real estate. So from this (Outlook 2010 at least):

Click the “View” tab:

Select “People Pane” and set it to “Off”:

Voila!

UPDATE:

Same two steps work on Outlook 2013.