“Beachball” Outlook 2011 14.5.4 Now Gobbles Too Much CPU

OSX 10.10.5 Yosemite

MS Office 2011

18 Gb Memory

Recently applied the 14.5.4 MS Office for Mac Update and should not have.

For the first time:

Getting beachball. When creating messages getting slow-to-catch up typing.

Using Activity Monitor, I can see wild swings up to 90 percent of CPU.

My inboxes hold only a few messages, deleted items are few.

I've compacted and rebuilt database.

I have many saved messages but only "On My Computer," however.

But....when I select, "Work Offline," and even create a message offline, CPU drops to 1.9% and stays there.

Is this the only way to control out-of-control Outlook 2011?

I need to know how to shut down the new, incessant "calling home" that Outlook is now doing, screwing up my Mac Pro. There must be settings somewhere and I can't believe I'm alone with this problem.