Using Classic Outlook on Windows for personal email, calendar, and contact management
I also had this exact issue of my calendar start time always going to 12am when I would change to "email" and then change back to Calendar. From the info that Fabrizio Donnarumma provided, I too had 2 calendars showing in 1 view. I removed Calendar 2 and checked my setting for work hours, I then added calendar #2, removed #1, and checked the setting for work hours. Both had the correct settings of 8am - 5pm. I then went back to show both calendars and put them both in the same view, and now the problem is GONE! It works exactly like it should, and I cannot get it to fail, no matter what I do. I do not know which step got the problem to go away, but it did. I did not close the program or change any of the settings (although I did "OK" the settings screen, but didn't change anything) or anything else, just 4 simple steps.
Good Luck.