Wheel of death when switching between “Mail) tab and “Contact” tab

On my MacBook Air (2013: OS X V10.8.5, 8GB RAM, 1.7GHz), while in Outlook (Office 365 for Mac 2011), here's the scenario:  I'm looking at my email messages, and then click on the "Contacts" tab;  I get the "spinning wheel of death" for approximately 20 seconds before it will allow me to begin searching my contacts.  It's as if the program is having to index the database every single time it is accessed.  Is this common, or is there something I can/should do to make this stop from happening?  It clearly doesn't happen when using Outlook on a Windows PC.

Also, if I leave a contact window open, the fan will soon come on, and will power up to full speed.  When I close the contact window, the fan will go back to normal (which is basically off)